Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

God, Sex and Marriage

God, Sex and Marriage
By John Richardson
St. Matthias. 88 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1873166 70 2

I must confess that on taking up this book, I was not expecting a great read. It is a little book (more of a booklet in fact) and it looked rather flimsy, not to say insubstantial, both in form and content!
Some readers might find this attractive in a book, for some reason I did not. Thankfully, my first impressions were wrong. Not only is this little book a gem, it was something of a subtle rebuke to my assumption that where theological tomes are concerned, size matters.
The author writes in a deliberately popular style, but this should not be read as 'lightweight'. He has clearly done his homework, translating the Greek himself at the beginning of each chapter. The book itself is an exposition of Paul's teaching on the vexed subject of sexuality in 1 Corinthians 7, and he does a very thorough job too, covering most of the burning issues from 'Whom should I marry?' to 'Should I marry at all?' and 'Whether celibacy is a better option' (according to the apostle).
What is interesting is the way he goes about this. Richardson is clearly a fan of the work of Gordon Fee in this area, and makes no bones about using his commentary. And with Fee, he takes a revisionist approach to Pauline ethics. So there is something of the apologist in this. Paul, we are assured, did approve of marriage after all, and was certainly not the hard-nosed ascetic that the majority of Christendom from Augustine onwards has taken him to be (say goodbye to your hair-shirt). Moreover, where Paul has traditionally been taken to be raising his own agenda in chapter 7, Richardson writes with the conviction that Paul is addressing himself to specific issues raised by the Corinthians themselves in a previous letter now lost.
This book would be good for marriage classes, home groups, Bible studies, or personal study. I read it in one sitting, which is (probably) not ideal. It is not that kind of book. But I still came away thoughtful, even when not always in agreement with the author. To be read, pondered - and practised - particularly in this sex-crazed society in which we live.

Oliver D. Crisp
Bramley