Sex and the Supremacy of Christ
From Neoredemptive
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John Piper (ed) and Justin Taylor (ed)
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Synopsis
A collection of essays sketching Christian theology, worldview, ethics, and history with respect to sex, written by a collection of reformed authors.
Doc's Take
I was considering reading Rob Bell's Sex God, another presently-popular book on Christian sexuality, but wanted to start out with some authors whose theological track record is a little more clearly orthodox and a little less apparently sensationalist.
I know a book is good when I curse at it, chuck it at the wall, and then immediately pick it back up and continue reading. That happened twice in this one. (I'm not saying where, though.)
Chapter 4 ("Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken" by David Powlison) is probably the best and most truly Christian treatment I've read so far of sexual brokenness. It doesn't quite rise to the challenge in my Christian sex books rant, but its presence places this tome head-and-shoulders above any book of this kind I have yet come across.
With regard to chapter 5 ("Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections" by Albert Mohler), the issue of gay marriage touches on issues of ecclesiology and Christology, but it also has civic and legal implications. While Mohler's reflections are absolutely spot-on in terms of theological reflection and apologetics, it is not clear how his insistence upon a (generally) Biblical and (specifically) Christian framework for discussion plays out productively in the realm of civics where most of the participants we are presented with are (at best) functional secularists. He certainly presents our position more coherently to those willing to listen to the whole story, but it also effectively abdicates any functional authority over an avowedly secular civic system; it may be true, but that truth can then only stand to condemn the secular state, offering no road forward to shape the policies of said state apart from fundamentally "Christianizing" it.
Admittedly I only skimmed Part 4 ("Women and Sex", chapters 8 and 9), but I was disappointed with Carolyn Mahaney's chapter ("Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Wife Needs to Know"). It's largely just a rehash of the "spice yourself up and your husband can't help but want you" cliché with hardly a tip of the hat to the myriad sexual dysfunctions that can cripple both spouses. While C. J. Mahaney's earlier chapter in the "Men and Sex" section ("Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Ever Christian Husband Needs to Know") also leaves this subject woefully under-treated, it is at least and more clearly Biblical in its focus (Song of Solomon) and gives more air to the broader constellation of husbandly responsibilities (sexual and non-sexual).
The chapters on Luther ("Martin Luther's Reform of Marriage" by Justin Taylor) and the Puritans ("Christian Hedonists or Religious Prudes? The Puritans on Sex" by Mark Dever) were a real treat, and offer excellent correctives to a lot of wrong-headed ideas about sex still popular today.
