We need this book. They usefully wrote it for adults, not teenagers. They speak biblically, directly, and boldly into a Christian culture that that takes dating too lightly and that approaches it too individualistically. Consider this counter-cultural advice given to a man and woman beginning a dating relationship:. Exactly right. It makes me wonder, how can someone date, in a God-honoring fashion, without being a committed member of a church, without being known by a community committed to love, encourage, and, where necessary, rebuke?
This becomes even more important for adults who are dating and living away from parents and the accountability that father and mother so naturally provide. In any event, I love the fact that the Phillips write about the importance of the father. They write about the importance of the church. Parents, we need to take responsibility for our kids. Churches, we need to take responsibility for our singles. Indeed, dating should not be a private affairβas Christians we should welcome the light of family and congregation shining into every corner of our lives.
It is so tempting to rebuff this point of view as intrusive, meddling, and bothersome. But when it comes to dating, this is an anti-Christian perspective.
The Phillips put it well:. However we do it, here is a matter in which Christians ought truly to be countercultural. We are living in a time when the boundaries and fences guarding social life have been removed, with the so-called liberation of so many facets of life.
Women today are encouraged to wander alone into the arms of romance; for many, the result is the loss of their purity and the ravaging of their emotions. Also involved is the radical individualism of contemporary life.
