“Sex
is an expression of Christian faith... Christian disciples are those
who
Off to a
good start, Jensen goes downhill from here. His aim is to offer an
interpretation of sexual desire grounded in the revelation of the
incarnation. The Word became flesh and this flesh includes the
blessing of sexual life.
Jensen
pays much more attention to various authors than he does to the
Bible. He more quickly quotes early Christian mystics or
pseudo-Christian authors than he does Scripture. He ignores the Fall
of man and evil. And the language he uses is graphic and, I felt,
totally offensive and unnecessary.
Chapter
1 is about Scripture and sex. He surveys the approaches, such as it
being a guidebook for sexual behavior, or the view that the rules no
longer apply, or reading Scripture as a narrative of desire.
Chapter
2 explores triune covenantal God and the connection to human
sexuality. He explores the mystics (Christian and non-Christian) with
two of his conclusions being that the home of all desire is found in
God, and our desire is grounded in God's desire. He ignores the
reality of evil and that Satan might generate desire in humans.
Chapter
3 is on how the incarnation affirms the beauty of flesh and counters
the violence portrayed in contemporary sex. He explores sex in the
resurrection. (He has an odd section here about the man who runs off
naked in Mark 14:51-52 as being the same individual appearing at the
tomb dressed in white robes, Mark 16:5.)
Chapter
4 focuses on eschatology, particularly as it relates to sexual
identity. He reviews various denominational positions. “Our task,”
he writes, “in living holy sexual lives is to determine whether we
are gay or straight and to live in faithfulness to that calling as we
find another to love.” (38%)
Chapter
5 explores the ramifications of the Lord's Supper for human
sexuality.
Chapter
6 investigates vocation and sex. He writes of marriage and celibacy,
long recognized by the church as Christian vocations. “To these two
vocations,” he writes, “I add a third: singleness that does not
entail sexual abstinence. Each one of these vocations builds up the
body of Christ, each one is holy, each one is a response to a gift of
the Spirit...” (65%) “Single Christians date; single Christians
have sex... Dating is a reality of single life and it ought to be
seen as a component of Christian life. … Thus dating may involve
sex, but it does not require it.” (76%)
He
integrates prayer and sex and argues, “This is why the case for gay
marriage ought to be particularly strong in the Christian church...”
(66%) “The Reformed churches, in particular, ought to celebrate gay
marriages...” (70%) “...[G]ay marriages anticipate the communion
and reconciliation God brings to the world in Jesus Christ.” (71%)
Chapter
7 is about sexual ethics. The traditional approach is that sex is
reserved for marriage. Jensen notes that there is no prohibition of
premarital sex in the Bible. “Instead of policing premarital sex,
the church ought to recognize how and in what ways it may be a
good...” (84%) He identifies five markers that identify the sexual
part of the abundant life given us in Christ: consent, mutuality,
covenant/trust, community, and joy.
He
concludes, “...the saints of the church are married and single
persons, young and old, gay and straight, celibate and noncelibates.”
(89%)
I cannot
recommend this book at all. An author who regards more highly what is
found in a variety of publications by a variety of writers over that
which is found in the Word of God is not an author I respect nor
value. Jensen's book is just a rehashing of current liberal thought.
(Note: the percentages refer to locations in the digital copy of the
book I read.)
David H.
Jensen is Professor in the Clarence N. and Betty B. Frierson Chair of
Reformed Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Westminster
John Knox Press, 144 pages.
I
received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher for
the purpose of this review.
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