Knowing and Being Known: Hope for All Our Intimate Relationships
Ebook
"I can live without sex, but I can't live without intimacy."
In today's landscape of digital interactions, many people long for deeper connections. We have a desire to move from being lonely and disconnected in our relationships to be seen, known, and wholly loved. From friendships to romantic relationships, meaningful and genuine personal connections remain our heart's desire.
College chaplain Rev. Erin Moniz is deeply attuned to the questions and concerns of today's emerging adults. In Knowing and Being Known, she
- explores the essential elements of healthy relationships,
- addresses the complexities of intimacy,
- and shines a light on the barriers that can impede genuine connection.
With her compelling storytelling and expert insights from her research with emerging adults, she emphasizes the significant role of identity and self-worth in fostering meaningful relationships. This comprehensive resource goes beyond the subject of sex, providing a holistic perspective on intimacy that resonates with single emerging adults and married couples alike.
Begin to experience healthy relationships and transform your relational world as you ask better questions to get better answers. To know that we are loved by God is to know our identity in Christ. And this knowing provides us the tools and the path to a healthy, sustainable intimacy that allows us to be at home in our fullness in the gospel and with each other.
Introduction: This Is Not Another Hot Take on Relationships
Section 1: The Problem with Intimacy
1. Defining Intimate Relationships
2. How the Western World Co-opted Our Identities
3. How Christendom Baptized Secularization
4. Our Broken Compasses and the Role of Grace
Section 2: The Gospel of Intimacy
5. Discovering the Origins of Intimacy and Our Desires
6. Deceit, Sin, Fear, and Shame: Why We Can’t Seem to Make Good Choices
7. Knowing and Being Known Through the Three Intimacy Motifs
8. Loneliness and the Location of God
9. What Is the Purpose of Relationships?
Section 3: Where We Go from Here: Implications for the Local Church
10. Examining Intimacy in Our Gospel Communities
11. The Art of Friendship and The Family of God
Epilogue: A Messy Hope
Group Discussion Questions
Acknowledgements
"Every one of us is made for intimacy. Does intimacy mean sex? Is there a way of thinking about intimacy and sex that go beyond youth group oversimplifications? Yes—and in Knowing and Being Known, Erin F. Moniz shows the way. She guides readers past behavior obsession to the cultivation of virtue. She imparts wisdom, grace, and love in place of shame. She has life-giving medicine and a road map out of the epidemic of loneliness. Every leader in the church should make this book a part of their pastoral practice."
"What a breath of fresh air! If you've ever wondered why Christian sexual ethics seem to be limited to 'stay a virgin until you're married and then have lots of sex later,' get ready for Erin Moniz to replace this anemic way of thinking with a robust theology of intimacy. And that theology challenges so much of what we've been taught: that marriage is the pinnacle; that romance is the point; that sex is the center of everything. What would happen if our churches focused less on stressing marriage and more on creating a culture of wholeness, health, and the vulnerability that is intimacy's currency? Erin's vision of churches transformed by real intimacy is both scary and exciting—and I'm ready for it!"
"This wise, timely, and practical book reminds us that real intimacy is far more—and far better—than just sex. Erin's words are a gift to any person, single or married, who longs to cultivate a life of deep relational intimacy. In other words, they are a gift to us all."
"At one level, this book may strike you as old hat. Yet another book on relationships and faith by an evangelical Christian author? But look closer. Here is a sensitive study of intimacy written by a seasoned pastor, informed by extensive fieldwork, leavened with wit and humor, and—above all—strikingly in tune with the overarching story as well as the micro-details of the Bible's grand story of redemption in Christ. If you or someone you know longs for deeper friendships, and especially if you work with emerging adults, this book will enlighten, instruct, inspire, and equip you for the lifelong work of nurturing mutual love."
- Title: Knowing and Being Known: Hope for All Our Intimate Relationships
- Author: Erin F. Moniz
- Publisher: IVP
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781514010044, 9781514010037, 1514010038, 1514010046
- Resource ID: LLS:9781514010044
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-08-23T04:12:46Z
Rev. Erin F. Moniz (DMin, Trinity School for Ministry) is a deacon in the Anglican Church in North America and associate chaplain and director for chapel at Baylor University, where she disciples emerging adults and journeys with them toward healthy, gospel-centered relationships. She is a trained conciliator, mediator, and conflict coach. She enjoys content creation, playing music, being outdoors, and narrating the inner monologue of her two cats. She lives in Waco, Texas, with her husband, Michael.