SEXUALITY AND HOLY LONGING：EMBRACING INTIMACY IN A BROKEN WORLD

This powerful book shows how many Christians, including pastors, parents and leaders, have unwittingly absorbed many cultural ideas about sexuality that are not supported by the Bible. As people created by God for relationship, our sexuality guarantees that we will long for and be drawn toward others, McMinn provides a blueprint for understanding sexuality--and our longing to be loved-- at all stages of life (childhood, teen years, early adulthood, midlife, and old age), and addresses tough topics including sexuality for those who are single (divorced, widowed, or never married). She also details practical solutions for ways that parents, educators, and churches can nurture others and ourselves in the quest to understand sexuality as a longing that draws us toward God and others, and to embrace it as a God-given gift. Thought provoking study questions at the end of each chapter inspire us to action in reclaiming our sexuality through grace.

Lisa Graham McMinn is a professor at Wheaton College where she teaches courses in family and sociology. She is the author of Growing Strong Daughters and speaks, writes, and teaches on gender issues in the church. She has been married to her husband, Mark McMinn, for twenty-four years, and together they have parented three daughters.

Foreword by Stanley J. Grenz.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Rites of Passage: The Quest for Manhood and Womanhood.

2. Adolescence: Awakenings and Choices.

3. Sleeping Alone: Sexuality and Singleness.

4. Birthing Babies: The Essence of Early Motherhood (and Fatherhood).

5. Mysteries of Marriage: Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh.

6. Sexuality and Culture: Bodies and Scripts.

Epilogue: Beauty from Ashes.

Notes.

The Author.

Index.