"Faithful: A Theology of Sex" by Beth Felker Jones. A Review

Faithful: A Theology of Sex (Ordinary Theology)Faithful: A Theology of Sex by Beth Felker Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This 112 page paperback is a short, sweet, mildly sassy little thing. Beth Felker Jones, professor of Theology at Wheaton College, has compiled a handy set of chapters in "Faithful: A Theology of Sex". It's an easy-to-read dossier that takes on sex, both our birth sex and procreative sex, and is mature, unencumbered, and comprehensible.

The working premise of "Faithful" is that sex "has to do with who God really is and who we really are" (13); that sex "matters to God because bodies matter to God, because God created our bodies and has good plans for us as embodied people" (18). This means, according to Jones, that the "Christian faith is profoundly for the body and for the joys of the bodily life" (22). The author hammers out the implications of her thesis, walking the reader through celibate singleness, faithful marriedness, and the goodness of sexual differentiation between male and female.

Simultaneously, "Faithful" pushes against the commodification and cheapening of bodies and sex. As Jones asserts, if our "bodies don't really mean anything, then we will act as though we can assign them meaning at random" (15). The author exposes the demeaning direction of elitist and Gnostic trends in society, and among Christians, that deny the goodness of male bodies and the goodness of female bodies. When Gnosticism prevails "the result has been bad for female bodies, for girls and women" because "Gnostics see female bodies - far more than male ones - as the special problem that redemption needs to get rid of" (33). Jones further delves perceptively into sex gone wrong in what she calls "pornication" (43-50).

In the end, "Faithful" is a useful manual. On the one hand it lays bare the "sexual orthodoxy of our fallen world" that "wants to create a body that is something to be consumed." On the other hand it beautifully presents Christian sexuality as that which "recognizes that the body is meant to be a witness. Sex is a witness to what God does in our lives, a witness to the God who is faithful and keeps promises" (104). If you're thinking about biology and bodies and maleness and femaleness, then this is a good book. I happily recommend it.

You can purchase the book here: "Faithful"

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“The Shift” - 2023 Movie. A Review

Image
  What do you get when you cross a dark dystopian storyline with sci-fi, alternative dimensions, theological and philosophical questions, and the biblical book of Job? You get The Shift , written and directed by Brock Heasley, produced by Ken Carpenter, and distributed by Angel Studios. This roughly one hour and 45 minute tale swirls around Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha) as he moves from one realm of life, with it’s happiness and heartbreak, to another dimension that is a dismal existence clearly governed by The Benefactor (masterfully played by Neal McDonough). A viewer will be asking questions all the way through, and picking up clues and answers that pull the story together bit-by-bit. The story bumps up against an infinite set of alternative possibilities, of time, space, and versions of one’s self that will likely stoke a viewer’s imagination. But the heart of the narrative - besides love, grief, loss, trust/distrust - is around the place of evil, specifically, personal or human evil.
Read more

"On Getting Out of Bed" by Alan Noble. A Review

Image
  When it comes to family members or friends going through a significant mental crisis, or suffering, we often can feel like we’re fumbling about to help them. Sometimes, we can become like Job’s friends, whom he had to call “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). But very recently Alan Noble, assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee Oklahoma, and cofounder and editor-in-chief of “Christ and Pop Culture” penned a deeply beautiful 120-page hardback that addresses mental affliction. “On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living” is written for those who struggle with mental affliction, but also pastors, teachers, parents, and loved ones, to “help them understand their loved one’s suffering. It is for anyone who ever struggles to get out of bed” (3). I finished this book earlier this week, and kept finding myself saying, “Finally! Someone gets it!” Eight chapters fill up this handy manual. They run through several subjects, like not sounding like Job’s f
Read more

Community?

Image
  (This is from my letter to my congregation I sent out today, 30 August 2023) As one of my elders was leading us through Carl Trueman’s Strange New World in our adult class , I appreciated Trueman’s emphasis on community. And our discussions, especially the last two Sundays, were very fruitful as we thought out loud together about this subject. Therefore, I thought I would share something from David Brooks, an Op-ed columnist that leans into this discussion.   Brooks published a book in 2019 titled, “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life”. In that work he was taking a gentle punch at destructive trends he has been seeing, and giving some helpful correctives. And so, he notes that “Individualism, taken too far, leads to tribalism” (34). He then shows how the loneliness and spiritual emptiness of individualism taken too far have become more prevalent in our time and the ways that they lead to very dark social consequences. These darker social consequences foster the need t
Read more