Deus Misereatur

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield My rating: 5 of 5 stars With hundreds of reviews already splattered across the internet, I'll leave the more detailed analysis for others. Simply put, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's 206 page paperback, "Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ," is a book worth snatching up and pouring over! The subtitle displays the shape of the book's content, which tackles a hot subject from the author's unique, first-hand perspective. It is an easily readable book. Butterfield covers the categories of sexual orientation and identity, and their genealogical ancestry in Freud and Foucault. She also takes up the performance and perimeters of sanctification in union with Christ, and how this affects our deepest identity. As she observes, sanctification in union with Christ ...

Nancy Pearcey’s 336 page stout hardback, “ Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality,” came out in January 2018, and hit the ground running! It is a book focused on the human body, what it means to be made in the image of God, and how our culture has increasingly become anti-body and anti-human. And it is a book written in the utmost seriousness. According to Pearcey, and my own experiences, we have moved into a Gnostic era, what Hans Jonas defined as an anti-cosmic dualism. In this Gnostic stage, the body is commodified, treated as a malleable substance that can be discarded or remade to suit the customer’s satisfaction, because it is treated as other than “me”. The statement usually runs something like this: “Why are you focusing on this outside stuff (body; genitalia; physique; etc.). The real me is on the inside!” Unfortunately this kind of dualism is the offspring of Christians in North America over the last 200 years. I have heard and read nume...

What happens if someone comes to your church and after some days of getting to know them they inform you they’re Gay or Lesbian? What if a Christian you’ve known for years unexpectedly opens up to you and admits that they find themselves sexually attracted to those of their sex? These real-life possibilities, and more, are addressed in the 96 page paperback “Is God Anti-Gay: And Other Questions about Homosexuality, the Bible and Same-Sex Attraction” by Sam Allbery, who is part of the team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, works as UK Editor for The Gospel Coalition, and has been same-sex attracted (SSA) for years. This little handbook is a thoughtful and Scriptural guide, written with solid biblical convictions and compassion. Allberry addresses what the Scriptures say about the beauty of human sexuality, and how from page one God’s plan and standard for sex has always been single and celibate or marriage between one man and one woman as long as they both shall live. He ...

Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality by Todd A. Wilson My rating: 5 of 5 stars As the social environment in the U.S.A. continues to stay hot, and civility and sensibility atrophy, it is increasingly important for Christians and pastors to have solid resources that will help us keep our heads about us. Todd Wilson, Senior Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park Illinois, as well as co-founder and chairman of The Center for Pastoral Theologians, has compiled an easy-to-read study published in the 191 page softback, "Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality." This small volume artfully works through creation, the incarnation of Christ, and the resurrection, to tackle, theologically, the place of our embodied sexuality. In many ways it is a Christological anthropology. Instead of turning "God's intentions for human sexuality into a stale set of moral rules" (40), the author beautifully presents the centra...

From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity Kyle Harper Harvard University Press 79 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138  http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ ISBN 9780674072770; $42.00; June 2013 Assessing Antiquity: 5 of 5 Stars Foucault, Langlands, Williams, Verstraete and Provencal, along with an army of others, have spilt gallons of ink to chronicle and choreograph the tricky and intricate sexual mores of ancient Rome into the Christian era. Kyle Harper, Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma and Executive Director of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, has added his voice to the discordant chorus in his 316 page hardback, “From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity.” It is a work written for both the lettered and the thoughtful learner alike. The author is clinical in his approach, analytical in his reading, and fairly impartial...

Unchanging Witness: The Consistent Christian Teaching on Homosexuality in Scripture and Tradition S. Donald Fortson III and Rollin G. Grams B&H Publishing Group One LifeWay Plaza Nashville, TN. 37234 www.bhpublishinggroup.com ISBN:    9781433687921; February 2016; $34.99 Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber. A slightly different version of this article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2017 issue of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity . 5 Stars out of 5 Based on reports from news broadcasts, tabloids, cultured journals, enlightened bureaucrats, sitcoms, singers and social media, it looks as if it’s an open and shut, clear cut case of social justice. It’s only the coarse troglodytes, communal cave-dwellers, and clichéd sticklers who linger around the sides and shadows of our brave new world, and make peevish and prejudiced protests. But fear not, we’re assured, for the moral high-ground has been claimed by throngs of the liberated and learned. W...

Compassion Without Compromise: How the Gospel Frees Us to Love Our Gay Friends Without Losing the Truth by Adam T. Barr My rating: 5 of 5 stars It is a topic that has generated more friction and fire than hope and help. Foundations, families and fellowships are starting to experience the tension from within and without, which is resulting in either a wide-eyed panic or a willful lenience. Nevertheless it is a subject that needs to be fearlessly, but sympathetically, looked into. Adam Barr, senior pastor at Peace Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Ron Citlau, pastor of Calvary Church in Orland Park, Illinois, have provided churches and families a readable and reachable resource that is personal, courageous and considerate. “Compassion without Compromise: How the Gospel Frees Us to Love Our Gay Friends Without Losing the Truth,” is a 160 page paperback written for parents, pastors, and parishioners to strengthen the faithful, and steady the faltering.  It is grounded on the go...

Recently I posted my paper, " Homosexuality and the Bible ". If you have questions on the subject, feel free to go to the link and work through the 7 page paper. I suspect it may possibly receive some flack, if it is noticed at all. But hopefully the thoughtful reader will see that there is nothing "mean-spirited" or ugly about it. Mike