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Purposeful Sexuality: A Short Christian Introduction
If God means for us to save sex for marriage, why doesn't he just zap us with sexuality on our wedding night? Why do most of us experience sexual feelings throughout our adult lives, not just in the safe confines of marriage? Is limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman anything but outdated prejudice? What is our sexuality actually for?
Today's culture overwhelmingly tells us that sex is essential for human flourishing. Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before.
With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.
Today's culture overwhelmingly tells us that sex is essential for human flourishing. Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before.
With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.
80 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2020
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101 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 12, 2023
Genius. Shaw draws on his experiences as a same-sex attracted Christian to help us understand why we have our sexualities, what God has done to help us in this area, and how we're to live in light of that. Groundbreaking stuff as far as I'm concerned - I've never encountered such a brilliant encouragement to purposeful, Christ-centred sexuality.
January 9, 2021
This is an excellent book. Short, well written and genuine. Ed has written a real gem here, offering such wonderful Gospel hope in the midst of a world obsessed with our sexualities. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book, and wish it had been published many years ago!
July 8, 2021
A short book - I read it in an hour - considering why God made us sexual, pertinent for us all but especially for those not having sex for any reason. There's lots of good pastoral wisdom here, and a big vision of sexuality that helps reframe some of the current hot button debates.
February 25, 2024
Tell me you're a youth worker without telling me you're a youth worker! Nah seriously, it's a really helpful read
May 16, 2021
Enjoyed the awkwardness of reading this in my parents’ living room.
Shaw’s perspective on Jesus & the Samaritan woman was a REVELATION.
Shaw’s perspective on Jesus & the Samaritan woman was a REVELATION.
May 9, 2021
Really helpful little primer on the purpose of sexuality - why God has made us sexual, the help he gives in navigating life with a sexual body, and the wonderful fulfilment of sexuality in Christ!
May 9, 2021
Excellent, excellent book. Shaw and I have come to a lot of the same conclusions by different routes, which of course is part of why I like it, but I also appreciate his very different perspective. I'm a married lady with multiple kids, while Shaw is single and gay. I came at the subject through passages like Ephesians 5:22-33 and other Biblical discussions on marriage and the position of women, then picked up the prophetic passages on God and his OT peoples, while Shaw seems to have come in from the other direction without thinking twice about the position of women in the church, but our conclusions are similar.
I think the greatest crisis the Christian Church faces at the moment is what it has to say on sex and marriage; unBiblical tradition has infiltrated the Church much too deeply on those fronts, resulting in considerable shame and hypocrisy. The Patriarchal movement demonstrates the worst of the Church's excesses, but even more reasonable and Biblical Christians can have a pretty skewed view of women, leading to an inaccurate view of the relationship between the Church and Christ. The Church needs to get a solidly biblical understanding of women, marriage, and particularly sex before it can act as salt and light to the surrounding culture, and this book is a giant step in the right direction.
Highly recommended.
I think the greatest crisis the Christian Church faces at the moment is what it has to say on sex and marriage; unBiblical tradition has infiltrated the Church much too deeply on those fronts, resulting in considerable shame and hypocrisy. The Patriarchal movement demonstrates the worst of the Church's excesses, but even more reasonable and Biblical Christians can have a pretty skewed view of women, leading to an inaccurate view of the relationship between the Church and Christ. The Church needs to get a solidly biblical understanding of women, marriage, and particularly sex before it can act as salt and light to the surrounding culture, and this book is a giant step in the right direction.
Highly recommended.
July 21, 2021
A really great, short, introduction to the biblical understanding of sex and sexuality. Honest and forthright, Shaw doesn't dodge the difficult questions, and offers helpful starting points for answers. The conclusion about the perfect sexuality of Jesus was surprising, beautiful and compelling.
March 6, 2023
Ed Shaw offers a direct challenge to the unnecessary length of lots of Christian books with this excellent intro to Christian sexuality, which takes up just 56 pages. He shows how we all have unique sexualities, which are also uniquely damaged and uniquely damaging – and how Jesus offers us help to sort out the mess we've made.
Shaw argues we have been too obsessed with the "Who with?" questions surrounding sex, and not focussed enough on the "Why?" question. The three typical answers to "Why?" are marital union, having children, and sharing pleasure – but Shaw subordinates these under the main purpose. "God has given us all the gift of sexuality so that we might experience important and profound things that we'd never understand without it" (44). These "important and profound things" concern the relationship between God and his people, and the final marriage that believers will all share in.
After showing how this purpose offers an encouragement to sexual faithfulness, he concludes with an important reminder of the divine help that is available in our struggles with sexual sin. In Jesus, "God became a sexual being" (45) – yet he always acted with complete integrity and self-sacrificial love. This means he can bring us forgiveness for our sexual past, and help for our sexual future.
Ed Shaw particularly writes with a pastoral concern for those who are not currently, or will never be, in a sexual relationship – this is a helpful perspective that he brings as a celibate same-sex attracted Christian, in a world where "sex books" are normally written by married pastors. I have questions about how persuasive a few of his arguments are, but he is covering a lot of ground, and is able to make some really profound and thought-provoking comments concisely. And ultimately, we get a wonderful reminder of the depth of God's love for us and the hope we have in his Son.
Shaw argues we have been too obsessed with the "Who with?" questions surrounding sex, and not focussed enough on the "Why?" question. The three typical answers to "Why?" are marital union, having children, and sharing pleasure – but Shaw subordinates these under the main purpose. "God has given us all the gift of sexuality so that we might experience important and profound things that we'd never understand without it" (44). These "important and profound things" concern the relationship between God and his people, and the final marriage that believers will all share in.
After showing how this purpose offers an encouragement to sexual faithfulness, he concludes with an important reminder of the divine help that is available in our struggles with sexual sin. In Jesus, "God became a sexual being" (45) – yet he always acted with complete integrity and self-sacrificial love. This means he can bring us forgiveness for our sexual past, and help for our sexual future.
Ed Shaw particularly writes with a pastoral concern for those who are not currently, or will never be, in a sexual relationship – this is a helpful perspective that he brings as a celibate same-sex attracted Christian, in a world where "sex books" are normally written by married pastors. I have questions about how persuasive a few of his arguments are, but he is covering a lot of ground, and is able to make some really profound and thought-provoking comments concisely. And ultimately, we get a wonderful reminder of the depth of God's love for us and the hope we have in his Son.
November 3, 2022
This is an excellent book, with a title that is completely appropriate. The book is designed for a Christian audience and will only make sense in that context. The author is a self-described gay Christian, so his arguments have extra power in our current cultural context. The author accepts the authority of scripture as God’s word and uses this to describe a purpose of sexuality that is much more significant and important than common views of sexuality. The book therefore serves as an important corrective for those who are (or may be) influenced by our culture that is sex obsessed as well as sex demeaning.
January 24, 2024
Though the essential theology of sex was already in my pocket, I learned how to link what the Holy Spirit had already taught me to actual Bible passages. This is not a book on compromising God’s decrees on our sexuality, but a discourse on our loving Father who gives us insight to what heaven will be like through our sexuality while at the same time, giving us the strength with Christ in us to live in His purity.
August 9, 2025
Don’t let the brevity of this book fool you. It packs a punch. Shaw knows his stuff and has walked the challenging but rewarding road of sexual integrity for decades. The fruit of that is this accessible, theologically rich, pastorally wise introduction to human sexuality according to the Bible. A great resource to begin a conversation on why (according to God) our sexuality can be both the best and worst thing about our lives, and what to do about it.
September 7, 2024
3.5/5
that’s insightful.
pov:
“the human story begins with a marriage, the human history will end with a wedding - an eternal union in differences (been God’s Son, Jesus, and God’s people, the church). “
that’s insightful.
pov:
“the human story begins with a marriage, the human history will end with a wedding - an eternal union in differences (been God’s Son, Jesus, and God’s people, the church). “
January 7, 2021
Very, very good little book.
Emphasis on the little.
Emphasis on the little.
October 19, 2021
This is a remarkable book that has provided satisfactory, gospel-focused answers to longstanding questions in my heart.
May 11, 2022
I was recommended this book from a friend who heard a seminar of Ed Shaw's and it proved very insightful. There was lots and lots I'd never thought about or hadn't released before - highly recommend!
January 19, 2023
Oh brilliant! Please read this wee gem of a book!
January 28, 2023
An excellent book exploring the biblical Christian understanding of sexuality. Short, easy to understand, and still full of detail and care.
November 22, 2023
Really poignant book on a subject that needs thinking & praying through. Wonderful!
October 20, 2025
Excellent book! So much wisdom and insight hidden within and beneath these pages! I could not put it down.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews