Kingdom Singleness
Airing on
Probe Radio
Oct.
19-23 |
|
Renea McKenzie — While studying at L'Abri Fellowship, I encountered two books
that really made an impression upon me for the simple reason that, of all the
many books I come across in my years of work with students, my studies, and my
personal reading, I had never seen even the likes of anything like them. I’m
speaking of Laura Smit's Loves Me, Loves Me Not and Lauren Winner's Real
Sex. These two books contain what's desperately missing in the “Christian
living” section of our bookstores, particularly for singles.
A Theology of Romance
I really appreciate and highly recommend Laura Smit’s book,
Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The Ethics of Unrequited Love.{1} It isn’t your
typical book on singles and romance. Right away, the subtitle lets you know this
book is special because while there are countless books on mutual love and our
moral responsibilities as Christian lovers, hardly anyone writes about our
responsibility toward virtue when feelings are not mutual. Smit begins with a
“theology of romance” in which she details God’s nature as love, God’s
creational plans both in Eden and in the New Heaven and the New Earth, sin’s
effect on those plans, and finally, virtuous and vicious romance, how sin
twists God’s intentions for love and how we can be virtuous by shaping our
romantic lives to God’s plans. This framework is centered on New Testament
teachings on marriage and family and singleness, teachings many Christians,
myself included up to now, have been successfully avoiding.
|
|
(left-click to listen
or download) |
|
|
| MEET THE AUTHOR |
 RENEA MCKENZIE
"I know what you're thinking. . .If I had a nickel for every Christian book on sex and romance.... I know; I feel the same way. But when I came across these two books during my time at L'Abri Fellowship, I was impressed by them both. They've really challenged my thinking about sex, singleness, marriage and family to be more biblical. Of all the countless books on these subjects, very few speak on them from such a comprehensive perspective in regard to the whole narrative of the Bible. That's why we want to get the word out and recommend them to you!"
Renea serves as Probe's program coordinator. She received both her B.S. in kinesiology and her M.A. in English from Dallas Baptist University. She spent a year studying at the famous L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland founded by Christian worldview pioneers Dr. Francis and Edith Schaeffer.
|
|
