Authentic Human Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach, 3rd ed.
Overview
Sex pervades our culture, going far beyond the confines of the bedroom into the workplace, the church, and the media. Yet despite all the attention and even obsession devoted to sex, human sexuality remains confusing and even foreboding. What, after all, is authentic human sexuality?
That is the question Judith and Jack Balswick set out to answer in this wide-ranging and probing book. Informed by sociology, psychology, and theology, the Balswicks investigate how human sexuality originates both biologically and socially. They lay groundwork for a normative Christian interpretation of sexuality, show how authentic sexuality is necessarily grounded in relationships, and explore such forms of “inauthentic sexuality” as sexual harassment, pornography, and rape.
Since its first publication, Authentic Human Sexuality has established itself as a standard text at numerous colleges and seminaries. Now this third edition features updated theological and social science research, insights from current neuropsychological evidence, and an expanded biblical model of authentic sexual relationships, along with updated discussion of sexual minorities, same-sex attraction, and LGBTQ issues.
A new generation of students, pastors, psychologists, and sociologists engaged in counseling will be indebted to the Balswicks for this study of an endlessly fascinating and perplexing facet of human identity.
- Explores the meaning of human sexuality
- Proposes a normative Christian interpretation of sexuality
- Features updated theological and social science research
- Part 1: The Formation of Sexuality
- Part 2: Authentic Sexuality
- Part 3: Inauthentic Sexuality
- Part 4: Conclusion
Top Highlights
“Sexual expression in the context of a lifelong commitment protects one from the insecurity of conditional love. Love based on if or because or when sets up conditions that threaten and keeps one uncertain. A conditional quid pro quo arrangement says, ‘I’ll love if you love,’ ‘I’ll forgive if you forgive,’ ‘I’ll make a commitment as long as you make one first,’ which is the exact opposite of unconditional love.” (Page 94)
“we bring a biblical model of covenant, grace, empowerment, and intimacy in defining authentic sexual relationships” (Page ix)
“Our premise is that person-centered sexual relationships are to be covenantal rather than contractual, gracing rather than shaming, empowering rather than controlling, and intimate rather than distant.” (Page 90)
“Only when sex is woven into a wider fabric of intimacy and communication can it deliver the deepest satisfaction of knowing and being known.” (Page 100)
“Do persons see their partner during the sexual encounter? Are they simply going through the motions that bring bodily pleasure?” (Page 148)
- Title: Authentic Human Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach
- Authors: Judith K. Balswick, Jack O. Balswick
- Edition: 3rd Edition
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Sexual ethics; Sex › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9780830872329, 9780830852376, 9780830815951, 9780830874460, 0830872329, 0830852379, 0830815953, 0830874461
- Resource ID: LLS:THNTCHMNTHRDDTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:22:04Z
Judith K. Balswick (EdD, University of Georgia) is a licensed marriage and family therapist who has been in practice for over thirty years and has taught for over twenty years in the marriage and family therapy program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She is author or coauthor of The Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home, The Gift of Gender, Mothers and Daughters Making Peace, Raging Hormones, Life Ties, Then They Leave Home, Family Pain, Relationship-Empowerment Parenting, The Two-Paycheck Marriage, and A Model for Marriage: Covenant, Grace, Empowerment and Intimacy.
Jack O. Balswick (PhD, University of Iowa) is senior professor of sociology and family development at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has twice received an American Senior Fulbright Scholar Fellowship. He is author or coauthor of seventeen books, including Men at the Crossroads, The Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home, The Gift of Gender, Social Problems: A Christian Understanding and Response, Relationship-Empowerment Parenting, Authentic Human Sexuality, The Reciprocating Self: Human Development in Theological Perspective, and A Model for Marriage: Covenant, Grace, Empowerment and Intimacy.