I agree they are wrong but they still teach it (Mormons).
And there was ‘celibate’ marriage, very popular in Late Antiquity, they were couples who chose to be celibate within the confines of a legal marriage, either out of religious observation or the marriage was arranged for political views.
You can be married and still be celibate, they are not mutually exclusive.
I have taken entire classes on the subject. I disagree with the need for clerical celibacy but understand why it was done.
I’ll check out the book, however you are still incorrect about there not being celibate marriages (also called chaste marriages) in History. It was also addressed in the Theodisian code You may want to read some of these links.
https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2926141/397158.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Celibate-Marriages-Antique-Byzantine-Hagiography/dp/1441115250
Abstract from a good friend of mine -
http://jfh.sagepub.com/content/32/4/343.abstract
I can locate other sources but am away from my library at the moment.
“You can be married and still be celibate, they are not mutually exclusive.”
They are in the proper understanding of the word ‘celibate’ in line with this thread.
Merriam-Webster:
Definition of CELIBACY
1 - the state of not being married
2a : abstention from sexual intercourse
2b : abstention by vow from marriage
Clearly definitions 1 and 2b are what we were talking about, not 2a.
“I’ll check out the book, however you are still incorrect about there not being celibate marriages (also called chaste marriages) in History.”
No, I am not wrong. I know that Josephite (the proper term) marriages existed. Celibate marriages are - strictly by traditional definition - an impossibility for no such thing as an “unmarried marriage” can exist. I do not confuse the married state with celibacy since the celibate state means to be unmarried.
Read the following:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5224.html
and Jo Ann McNamara’s well known article, “Spiritual Marriage and Clerical Celibacy,” in Vern Bollough’s Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church. The article might be somewhat dated by now.
See Karen Cheatham’s more recent “’Let Anyone Accept this Who Can’: Medieval Christian Virginity, Chastity, and Celibacy in the Latin West,” in Celibacy and Religious Traditions, edited by Carl Olson, (2008).