This review was published by The Baptist Standard: Digital Edition on March 30, 2014.
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When singleness hurts, the options prove slim.
I can brave Christian dating sites, dial up Mom or prescribe myself a pint of ice cream and a large dose of romantic movies on the DVD player. Christian subculture suggests other questionable remedies. Churches corral unmarried adults into holding cells dubbed “the singles ministry” until that blessed time when love blossoms.
Advice descends like unintended shrapnel. “You should enjoy your single years.” “Get married.” “Don’t idolize it.” “Put yourself out there.” “Don’t try so hard.” “Prepare for marriage.” “Pray more.” While pat answers can hold truth, they often weigh me down.
In Celibate Sex: Musings on Being Loved, Single, Twisted, and Holy, Abbie Smith digs deeper. She sees a vacancy in Christian doctrine where a theology of singleness should exist. With fresh honesty and a biblical bedrock, she builds a holistic understanding of what singleness means in a world of relationships and the family of God. She invites the wounded, the happy and the disoriented to find a place of belonging.
Celibate Sex is about finding home “in our bodies and in our humanity, in our brokenness and in God’s divinity,” Smith writes, and her book invites the reader in. Her frankness reads like a cup of hot cocoa on a cold night. Her courageous yet gracious dialogue beckons to the confused and broken. For the church, Celibate Sex continues the conversation, exploring a biblical understanding of singleness and the value unmarried individuals bring to the body of Christ.
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