Customer Reviews

Beyond "I Do": What Christians Believe about Marriage

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This book would make an ideal resource for pastors and churches who want to help their members understand how Christians ought to think about marriage, and based on that, prepare for or work on their own marriages. By presenting complex ideas plainly and clearly, the author helpfully sorts out the confusing notions about marriage that float around in our heads, and offers a vision for what marriage can be. This vision is based on a broad and careful study of the Bible (not just proof-texting, thankfully) as well as research on successful marriages and observations from the author's experience as a pastor. I found the explorations of the covenantal and sacramental views of marriage, the history of Christian attitudes about marriages, and the brief history of romantic love especially helpful. The list of "Ten Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Marriage" would make an excellent set of talking points for any engaged couple. The author is Protestant, but so respectful of other parts of the Christian family that I think this book could be very helpful even to pastors and parishioners who may not agree on every point.

This book is has been both helpful and not so helful. The benefits are that there are many little insights and experiences the pastor informs the reader that can be very helpful in thoughts about marriage. However, the writer writes this book on a theological approach to marriage and this is where, I, being a conservative christian cannot agree on every issue. He does try to be objective on issues on marriage by giving some good background and history to everything related to marriage but his conclusions and scriptural interpretation is biased towards his church or modern times. Again there are many good things in this book that I never knew about in approaching marriage, but I needed some discernment and careful review when the writer gave his exegesis and application of scripture. I guess this caused me to have an even more closer study on what scripture has to say about marriage.