Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 05:1 (Fall 2015)
Article: They Share Their Food But Not Their Wives”: Sexual Holiness As Christian Apologetic In The Second-Century
Author: Coleman M. Ford

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JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 25

They Share Their Food But Not Their Wives”: Sexual Holiness As Christian Apologetic In The Second-Century

Coleman M. Ford

Coleman M. Ford (Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary) is co-founder and editor-in-chief for the Center for Ancient Christian Studies and Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Church History and Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves in various capacities at the Seminary. He is also the managing editor of The Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry and Family Ministry Today. His research interests lie in early Christian sexual ethics, patristic exegesis, reception history of the church fathers, and Christian ethics. Coleman lives in Louisville with his wife, Alex, and together they serve at Sojourn Community Church.

Christian apologists of the second century continue to garner much-needed academic attention. Numerous new translations with commentaries on second-century apologetic literature have appeared in recent years.1 Helen Rhee, looking more broadly at Christian literature of the second and third centuries, notes the Christian claim of a superior Christian sexual ethic. While her analysis bears much fruit, she sees a strong emphasis on asceticism and renunciation as normative for early Christian sexual ethics.2 Additionally,

JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 26

Rhee’s tendency towards non-Pauline authorship of the pastorals and later epistles, coupled with a conflation of early Christian literature and Gnostic texts, impede any strong assertions regarding early Christian sexual ethics.3 This raises a series of interesting questions. To what extent does Christian sexual morality of the second century reflect biblical themes of sexual purity? Where, if ever, do the Christian apologists diverge from biblical motifs? How and to what extent was sexual holiness within the Christian community portrayed as an apologetic towards the veracity of the Christian faith and way of life?

In general, much work remains in examining sexual ethics in second-century Christian perspective. Second-century apologists, I contend, offer a consistent biblical defense relating to sexual holiness as an apologetic for the veracity of the Christian faith. Additionally, this apologetic relates to other biblical motifs calling Christians to exhibit a faithful presence in society. First I will briefly establish some New Testament foundations, then I will trace this biblical pattern through key works of the second century, concluding with s...

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