One Flesh

How do you have a happy honeymoon? How do you have a holy love life? How do you have the kind of sexual relationship that God intended for your marriage?

DIVBest Friends--Passionate Lovers! In an open, straightforward style, popular author and pastor Bob Yandian shares God's exciting blueprint for sex, love and intimacy. "Godly passion is a supernatural gift of God," he writes. "When you have a strong relationship with your mate's soul, the relationship with his or her body becomes something fantastic!" Yandian's practical wisdom on relationships, the story of his own troubled marriage that was restored, and his exceptional insights into sex and the Bible will stimulate both husband and wife to become One Flesh--best friends and passionate lovers. /div

On the sixth day of creation, God formed Adam from the dust of the earth. God then formed Eve from Adam's side. From this day forward man was to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. The two are joined together by God in a permanent one-flesh relationship. After man fell, the sins of adultery, fornication, polygamy, and divorce altered God's intention for marriage. This was true of those both outside and inside God's covenant community. By the time the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, the traditions of Judaism had either changed or nullified God's command for marriage. The Lord Jesus Christ came and stated God's original intent for marriage: 1. Permanence. The husband and wife are one flesh. They are permanently joined in a covenant relationship for life. No person has the legal or moral authority to end what God has joined together. No sin or legal document can dissolve the one-flesh bond. 2. Forgiveness. This is Christ's emphasis in dealing with sin. When one spouse fails, the love of Christ compels the other to forgive. Hardness of heart is the cause of unforgiveness and results in divorce. Because of the biblical teachings of Jesus and Paul, the early church held to the permanence of marriage. Over the centuries, Christ's commands on the permanence of marriage have been either changed or nullified. They have been replaced with the traditions of men. In theory, Christians are taught that they may divorce and remarry if their spouse commits adultery or deserts them. In practice, many evangelical Christians are divorcing and remarrying for almost any reason. The Lord Jesus Christ taught God's original intentions regarding forgiveness and divorce. The Word of God has not changed. "What God has joined together, let no man separate" (Mark 10:9).

In this detailed exegesis of Ephesians 5: 21-33 Dr Sampley discusses and describes the background and sources of the Epistle.

In Gender and Christianity in Medieval Europe, six historians explore how medieval people professed Christianity, how they performed gender, and how the two coincided. Many of the daily religious decisions people made were influenced by gender roles, the authors contend. Women's pious donations, for instance, were limited by laws of inheritance and marriage customs; male clerics' behavior depended upon their understanding of masculinity as much as on the demands of liturgy. The job of religious practitioner, whether as a nun, monk, priest, bishop, or some less formal participant, involved not only professing a set of religious ideals but also professing gender in both ideal and practical terms. The authors also argue that medieval Europeans chose how to be women or men (or some complex combination of the two), just as they decided whether and how to be religious. In this sense, religious institutions freed men and women from some of the gendered limits otherwise imposed by society. Whereas previous scholarship has tended to focus exclusively either on masculinity or on aristocratic women, the authors define their topic to study gender in a fuller and more richly nuanced fashion. Likewise, their essays strive for a generous definition of religious history, which has too often been a history of its most visible participants and dominant discourses. In stepping back from received assumptions about religion, gender, and history and by considering what the terms "woman," "man," and "religious" truly mean for historians, the book ultimately enhances our understanding of the gendered implications of every pious thought and ritual gesture of medieval Christians. Contributors: Dyan Elliott is John Evans Professor of History at Northwestern University. Ruth Mazo Karras is professor of history at the University of Minnesota, and the general editor of The Middle Ages Series for the University of Pennsyvlania Press. Jacqueline Murray is dean of arts and professor of history at the University of Guelph. Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Is the Church too negative about sex? Beginning with this provocative question, Fr. Lawrence Farley explores the history of the Church's attitude toward sex and marriage, from the Old Testament through the Church Fathers. He persuasively makes the case both for traditional morality and for a positive acceptance of marriage as a viable path to theosis.

This important philosophical reflection on love and sexuality from a broadly Christian perspective is aimed at philosophers, theologians, and educated Christian readers. Alexander R. Pruss focuses on foundational questions on the nature of romantic love and on controversial questions in sexual ethics on the basis of the fundamental idea that romantic love pursues union of two persons as one body. One Body begins with an account, inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas, of the general nature of love as constituted by components of goodwill, appreciation, and unitiveness. Different forms of love, such as parental, collegial, filial, friendly, fraternal, or romantic, Pruss argues, differ primarily not in terms of goodwill or appreciation but in terms of the kind of union that is sought. Pruss examines romantic love as distinguished from other kinds of love by a focus on a particular kind of union, a deep union as one body achieved through the joint biological striving of the sort involved in reproduction. Taking the account of the union that romantic love seeks as a foundation, the book considers the nature of marriage and applies its account to controversial ethical questions, such as the connection between love, sex, and commitment and the moral issues involving contraception, same-sex activity, and reproductive technology. With philosophical rigor and sophistication, Pruss provides carefully argued answers to controversial questions in Christian sexual ethics.

In “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism Adam Afterman offers an extensive study of mystical union and mystical embodiment through the divine name and spirit in Judaism.