The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On
New York Daily Newscolumnist and blogger Eden offers a Christian apologetic for premarital chastity, aimed at "marriage-minded single women who'd had enough of theSex and the Citylifestyle." Eden herself is a convert to both Christianity and chastity, and now an unmarried 30-something, she's persuaded that chastity is more "hope-filled" and "vibrant" than sex outside of marriage. She draws on John Paul II's theology of the body to explain why Christians should reserve sex for marriage; "our bodies are living metaphors of God's loving nature," she argues, and to have sex casually is to make a false promise of total commitment. Eden doesn't just theologize—she gives practical advice about how women should relate to their parents (if yours are divorced, as Eden's are, you should resist the temptation to blame them for bad sexual choices you've made) and masturbation (avoid it—you'll just feel lonely afterward). But trading on familiar (and tired) gender stereotypes, she notes that men lose interest in women who pursue them. In a sea of evangelical books on chastity that read like they were written for college students, Eden's will stand out as a book for grownups and should be popular with more mature Christian women.(Dec. 5)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.