Our August 23 cover story on monogamy and Dan Savage has
gotten a lot of feedback, both positive and negative. Benjamin Dueholm offers a
nuanced take on the ways the popular sex columnist is beating pastors at their
own game--and the ways Savage's ethical worldview falls short. Some readers
seem too stuck on the first point--"the Christian
Century believes we should be instructed by an advice columnist," crows Joe Carter at First Things--to hear Dueholm out on the second.
The current issue of Marie Claire contains an interview with a young, unmarried pastor whose calling impacts her sex life--because her ordination vows include celibacy in singleness.
Since starting seminary I've had the opportunity to read
through the Old Testament with a thoroughness I haven't used since my
evangelical youth group days. While building biblical literacy is something
evangelicals do very well, reading the Old Testament now reminds me how my context
shaped how I read the Bible. And it all had to do with sex.
Books
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1: Origins to Constantine
Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 8: World Christianities, c. 1815–c. 1914.
Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 9: World Christianities, c. 1914–c. 2000
Hugh McLeod, ed.
A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief Under Theodosius II (408-450)
Fergus Millar
God's War: A New History of the Crusades
Christopher Tyerman
Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, Volume 1: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage
John Witte Jr. and Robert M. Kingdon, eds.
Religion, Family, and Community in Victorian Canada: The Colbys of Carrollcroft
Marguerite Van Die
Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World
Jon Sensbach
Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University
Albert Howard
The Catholic Origins of Quebec's Quiet Revolution, 1931-1970
Michael Gauvreau
Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the American Civil War