Sex & the Church.

Is there such a thing as a healthy Christian sexual ethic? Many of us have shed shame-based teachings, but are still searching for something life-giving. What does sex look like in light of resurrection?

Journaling Prompts

What is your relationship with your body in general—and your sexuality more specifically? How has your theology shaped that relationship, if at all?

From abstinence to activity, what does healthy sex mean to you?

What might a healthy sexual ethic look like within a new creation community?

Practice

Take a few minutes to become aware of your body in God’s presence. Find a comfortable position. Take a few deep, slow breaths. Bring your attention to your body.

Starting at the top of your head and slowly moving down to your feet, notice each part of your body and how you feel in it.

Then, slowly move back up from your feet to your head. As you do, become consciously aware that God’s love includes your body—all of it. Every part.

God loves you. All of you.

Take a moment of stillness to sit with that in God’s presence.

What comes up for you in this practice?

Resources

Books & Book Chapters

Browning, James V. Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.

Bretherton, Luke. “Chapter 12: Intimacy.” In A Primer in Christian Ethics: Christ and the Struggle to Live Well, 213–230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Oldfield, Elizabeth. “Lust.” In Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, 151–168. Michigan: Brazos Press, 2024.

Articles and Essays

Williams, Rowan. “The Body’s Grace.” Lecture presented at the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, London, 1989. https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/the-bodys-grace.pdf.

Rienstra, Debra. “Rowan Williams for Dummies: On Human Sexuality.” Debra Rienstra (blog), September 15, 2016. https://debrarienstra.com/rowan-williams-for-dummies-on-human-sexuality/.

Magazine & Online Articles

“Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse.’” Vanity Fair, August 6, 2015. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating.

“Why There’s No Such Thing as Casual Sex.” Time, March 31, 2022. https://time.com/6160096/rethinking-sex-christine-emba-review/.

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