Other Religions
- Judaism has no history of celibacy for its leaders, rabbis or kohens. Before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, priests, kohens, and Levites were required to practice continence (abstain from sexual intercourse with their wife) before and during their time of service at the temple. They were permitted to resume marital relations after completing their service. Some community functions are, as a rule, filled only by married men. Marriage is encouraged for everyone.
- In Islam, lifelong celibacy or monasticism is forbidden. Marriage is encouraged for everyone.
- In Hinduism, priests can marry. At the same time, Hindu monks (sanyaasis), who are usually expected to withdraw from samsaara ('the world'), usually practice celibacy. Given no central organizational structure for Hinduism itself as a religion, various deviations from these norms do exist.
- The traditions of monasticism within Buddhism require celibacy. Several cultures, however, have revised this and now have forms of married lay teachers, who are distinct from the celibate clergy. Many Japanese monks and priests were celibate up to the time of the Meiji Restoration.
Read more about this topic: Clerical Celibacy
Famous quotes containing the word religions:
“The ancients adorned their sarcophagi with the emblems of life and procreation, and even with obscene symbols; in the religions of antiquity the sacred and the obscene often lay very close together. These men knew how to pay homage to death. For death is worthy of homage as the cradle of life, as the womb of palingenesis.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)