The word 'chastity' may seem intimidating, like a gust of cold wind from a bygone age. But do we know what it means? It does not stand for a denial of sex. Nor is it the same as celibacy. At a time when religion is in decline in the Western world and when it often seems that the senses have run riot, Erik Varden shows that chastity, the single-minded orientation of the senses, is a loveable quality that beautifies humankind. Key terms are sexuality and wholeness. To be sexual is to exist in a state of incompleteness longing to be restored. Wholeness points to a healing embrace we desire so greatly. In Biblical language, chastity is a function of simplicity of sight. To become chaste is to be no longer torn apart by passions and desires, but to see them reconciled, fulfilled. Through creative tensions between body and spirit, male and female, order and disorder, passion and death, we reach a new kind of integrity. Varden's text is enriched by a wide range of references to scripture, literature, music, painting and sculpture.