Passion and Purity [Paperback]

Elisabeth Elliot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1984

Popular seminar speaker Elisabeth Elliot has written a book about bringing one's love life under the authority of Jesus Christ. She gives direction in such areas as singleness or marriage, putting God's desires ahead of personal desires, what men look for in a woman, virginity and chastity, and the man's and woman's role in relationships.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Elisabeth Elliot's story centers around one pivotal question: "Does God want everything?" Her emphatic answer--"Yes"--is what makes Passion and Purity the foremost Christian book on dating ever written. Based on stories, journal entries, and letters chronicling her own five-year courtship with Jim Elliot, she gives frank advice, scriptural directives, and compassionate examples of what it means to follow Christ in the midst of heartache and impatience. The perfect antidote for those who flounder in the thinking that "the Bible doesn't say anything about dating," Elliot's short chapters are filled with nuggets of wisdom that spell out exactly the opposite. "Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone accept His lordship. The Cross, as it enters the love live, will reveal the heart's truth." Whether in a dating relationship, married, or pursuing a call to single life, readers will find Elliot's message challenging them to a true faith in a Christ who lovingly calls us to surrender all. --Courtenay Kehn

From the Back Cover

"The book you're holding tells a very moving love story. It's honest. It's practical. But even as it addresses the real questions and concerns of single men and women it always lifts our gaze upward-above our immediate preoccupations, above our longings for human companionship to the Maker who created us for Himself." --from the foreword by Joshua Harris

In Passion and Purity, Elisabeth Elliot emphasizes the need to commit daily to Christ all matters of the heart and to wait upon Him. She teaches this often-painful yet rewarding discipline by candidly tracing her love story with Jim Elliot as evidence that she has been there.

Through letters, diary entries, and memories, she shares the temptations, difficulties, victories, and sacrifices of two young people whose commitment to Christ took priority over their love for each other. These revealing personal glimpses, combined with relevant biblical teaching, will remind you that only by putting your human passion and desire through His fire can God purify your love.

Passion and Purity gives honest direction in such areas as:

* loving passionately while remaining sexually pure
* whether or not to marry, and who is the right one
* the man's and woman's role in relationships
* putting God's desires ahead of personal desires
* how far is too far, physically --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 193 pages
• Publisher: Fleming H Revell Co; 1st edition (January 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080075137X
• ISBN-13: 978-0800751371
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guidebook on the right way to find a mate, January 16, 2003

By 

K. Olgren (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control (Paperback)

I first read this book in my early teens, before I'd ever done any real dating. I kept going back to it, both when someone of the opposite sex was interesting me, or when down about there being no one in the picture. She offers a lot of very practical sound advice as to how to go about dating in the right way. I also found it extremely valuable when I realized that I was single, out of college, and had NO prospects on the horizon. I was able to accept that I didn't need to worry about that. God would find me a spouse, so I didn't have to. And that's exactly what He did.

Some have suggested that her personal experience was too different from most people's to be applicable. To anyone with such a perspective, I would suggest that you are reading it all wrong! I don't think Elisabeth Elliot would suggest that everyone needs to have a Jim and Elisabeth duplication in their own lives before marrying. She offers principles that apply regardless of your personal circumstances.

A couple of very valuable highlights that stand out to me, years after getting married. Her chapter on "What can a kiss tell you?" was really right on. Physical communication is tempting, but actually, it shuts down the more important forms of communication for finding Mr. Right, and can actually give you a lot of regret.

I also valued the romance in Jim's perspective when he wrote to her, "I have you now unravished." He was grateful to look forward to the time when physical intimacy was right, and to leave something to look forward to! That is so completely romantic, and I think it is almost tragic that in today's society, that romance is almost unheard of. People take what isn't theirs don't relish the anticipation of getting it AT THE PROPER TIME. My husband and I went about it that way, and I found it very romantic, both the anticipation of the consumation of my marriage, as well as when that actually took place. I wouldn't have wanted to have cheated myself out of that beautiful memory!

Old fashioned? I suppose it is. Relevant and needed in this day and age? Absolutely. When you put your love life in God's hands, that is a safe place to leave it.

74 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As relevant now as then, November 22, 2002

By 

Daniel L Edelen (Mt. Orab, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control (Paperback)

Until "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" hit the evangelical Christian scene, "Passion & Purity" was the de facto standard for dating and marriage. And while the former book has gathered more press, Elliot's is still as useful and has stood the test of time.

Having read some of the one and two star reviews here, I would simply say that virginity, making sure one's relationships are upright, asking serious questions about the worthiness of a potential mate, surrendering one's sexuality to God, dealing with loneliness, and knowing how to die to self daily are practices and beliefs that never go out of style.

Frankly, I believe this book has as much to offer as anything out there. That it is coming up on twenty years in the market does not diminish the power of the words contained inside. With the rampant promiscuity among young people, even those who claim the name of Christ, and the fallout that results in young lives because of a shattered soul given away in pieces to one sex partner after another, "Passion & Purity" still calls to all who will hear.

As for me, I heeded the words of the author as a young man and was able to hold on amidst the storm of sexual imagery and waning morality. This book was invaluable in that regard, helping me to see that I was not my own - I was bought with a price. How could I trample on that price?

Let me also say that after reading this book, I wrote Elisabeth Elliot and she wrote me a very kind and thoughful reply. If there is anything anochronistic about the author and her views, I will take her position any time. I mean, when was the last time an author personally responded to a letter you wrote? It just doesn't happen anymore.

If you are struggling with your sexuality, your dating life, and your desires for marriage, by all means read "Passion & Purity". It helped me. It can help you, as well.

58 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change your perspective on what is pure in dating, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Passion and Purity (Paperback)

If you want to see a real example of a couple keeping themselves pure before God, this is an awesome book. Yes, she is a little dry but that is what is good about it. She isn't selling fluff that isn't what God is about. She tells a story of her courtship with Jim Elliot, an awesome man of God. I don't care what people say about "I kissed dating goodbye" being better they are wrong. God used this book to change my perspective on purity to be a Godly woman and to know how I conduct myself and not chase after relationships. To enjoy my role and to then encourage other women to stay pure until their wedding day and not pursue men. God used this woman tremendously in my life and the lives of the other ladies in a single women's study to understand what God wanted from us as women. I married a year ago and our first kiss, EVER, was when the pastor said you may now kiss your bride and I am so glad she was obedient to write this book. Buy extra copies you'll need them for your kids.