The Intimacy Deficit: Fully Enjoying God, Yourself, Others and Creation
Ebook
Overview
We’re more connected than ever, yet many of us feel deeply alone.
Despite endless messages about love and belonging, we’re facing a widespread crisis of connection - both inside and outside the church. We were created for meaningful, life-giving relationships, but the intimacy we long for often feels just out of reach.
In The Intimacy Deficit, pastor and bestselling author Ed Shaw explores why this disconnect exists - and how the gospel offers a better way. Drawing on years of pastoral ministry, theological reflection, and personal experience, Shaw helps us rediscover the kind of deep, biblical intimacy we were made for: connection with God, with ourselves, with others, and with God’s creation. A trusted voice on Christian identity and relationships, Shaw is also the author of The Plausibility Problem and Purposeful Sexuality, two bestselling books that have helped reshape how the church approaches discipleship in today’s world.
Shaw challenges the cultural narrative that intimacy is found only in sex or romance, offering instead a richer, Christ-centred vision of connection. With clarity, compassion, and biblical insight, he shows how gospel-shaped intimacy can meet our deepest relational needs. Whether you’re single or married, isolated or emotionally exhausted, The Intimacy Deficit offers hope for those longing for meaningful connection - and a renewed vision of the church as a place of true belonging.
Grounded in Scripture and rich in insight, Shaw reshapes how we think about intimacy - and where it’s truly found.
Introduction - The Intimacy Deficit
Ch.1 - Intimacy with God
Ch.2 - Enjoying Intimacy with God
Ch.3 - Intimacy with Yourself
Ch.4 - Enjoying Intimacy with Yourself
Ch.5 - Intimacy with Others
Ch.6 - Enjoying Intimacy with Others
Ch.7 - Intimacy with Creation
Ch.8 - Enjoying Intimacy with Creation
Conclusion - An Intimacy Audit
’In an age of chronic disconnection, Ed carefully pastors the reader through a journey that is refreshingly honest, grounded and hopeful. His insights help us discern the intimacy gaps in our own lives and equip us with practical steps towards truly living life in all its fullness.’
’Ed puts his finger on what our parched and fragmented hearts are desperately yearning for. It’s an achingly beautiful picture of flourishing humanity. And how practically, even today, I can enjoy a deeper sense of being at home with God in his world, in my own skin and with others.’
’The kindness and rawness of Ed’s writing permeates every page. We each long to be known and loved - Ed invites us to have that desire satisfied in and through Jesus. Practical, real, honest and hope-filled; this book is essential reading for anyone who has wanted better or deeper relationships.’
’I often come across books that someone claims are essential, life-changing or a much-needed correction in our contemporary culture. I have a pile of them mostly unread. But this book is all those and more. It has already changed me, and I commend it to you as a thing of great wisdom, humility, learning and grace. Its greatest strength for me has been to draw together four different strands of intimacy (with God, ourselves, others and creation) rather than insist on one as all-important, treating each simply, briefly, movingly and practically. There are so many things here that need saying, but which I hadn’t managed to think yet, and Ed expresses them beautifully. I feel deeply encouraged and gently challenged to discover more of the intimacies God has made me for, that I might exult in a fuller, richer life.’
’In this pastorally warm and spiritually enriching book, Ed Shaw reminds us that our great longing as human beings is for intimacy. This is not about sex, but our need to be connected with God, ourselves, others and the creation. Rooted in compelling biblical teaching, and written with the wisdom acquired from decades of ministry, he helps us understand what it means to enjoy intimacy, the barriers that undermine intimacy and steps that we can take to foster greater intimacy. It is concise and accessible, poetic and moving, and will encourage readers to seek greater fullness in all their relationships as they experience the blessings of their new life in Christ.’
’Ed Shaw successfully and powerfully reclaims the concept of intimacy and restores it within a thoroughly biblical and wonderfully pastoral framework. It is widely researched and winsomely applied, but what sets it apart is his vulnerability, authenticity and humour. The Intimacy Deficit is a deeply disarming and enormously edifying read.’
- Title: The Intimacy Deficit: Fully Enjoying God, Yourself, Others and Creation
- Author: Ed Shaw
- Publisher: IVP
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 192
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781783599493, 9781783599486, 1783599480, 1783599499
- Resource ID: LLS:9781783599493
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-08-23T07:18:09Z