Beyond Awkward Side Hugs: Living as Christian Brothers and Sisters in a Sex-Crazed World

Description

WARNING: Protestant author denies Our Lady's perpetual virginity by thinking Jesus had siblings (e.g., Gal. 1:19), yet she emphasizes spiritual nature of being adoptive sons and daughters of God, so why wasn't a spiritual relationship meant when Jesus is said to have brethren? She also seems to deny Transubstantiation, thinking verses like Mt. 26:28 mean the wine remains after Jesus consecrated and that our subjective interpretation makes it the Blood of Christ. She implies that the αδελφήν γυναίκα (woman-sister) of 1 Cor. 9:5 means that St. Paul married a sister in Christ, but St. Paul was celibate (1 Cor. 7:8); cf. à Lapide ref:4.63-4.70. Cites Protestant revolt's Modernist catchphrase that the Church is "semper reformanda " ("always to be reformed"). She's liberal regarding sodomites; "chaste and gay" is an oxymoron.

Author Protestant (or ex-Catholic?; she said she had a nun for an elementary teacher), but still makes interesting points: she's anti-Freudian / anti-gnosticism (Manichean dualism: she abhors Origen's self-castration), discusses how married couples can't fulfill each other's needs by themselves, need for community and larger social circles, etc; viz., the erotic love that spurs one to marry should transform into a diffusive charity/agape love toward others. She's also anti-contraception, urging couples to be "other person centered". MP4 ch. 9 is a good discussion of the necessity of boundaries, unequal friendships/relationships (where there's a "power differential": teacher-student, pastor-parishioner, etc.), and how the more powerful party should set the limits. She, like Fr. Ripperger, thinks dating is meant to assess the qualities of a potential spouse. Quotes the CCC on sexuality. Ends with a discussion of a Sr. Mary, a Sister of Charity.

She cites/quotes Brennan; cf. his review part 1, part 2 (warning: he's a Protestant-Evangelical)

It doesn’t have to be this weird....

When it comes to relationships between men and women, we have more questions than answers:

• How do we keep relationships with the opposite sex healthy - and still hug each other after small group?
• Is it possible for married men and women to be friends with people of the opposite sex?
• What does it mean to be a woman if you’re not a wife, or a man if you’re not a husband?

Jesus’ pattern for church living was one of family - of brothers and sisters living in intimate, life-giving community with each other. With story, sensitivity, and hope, Beyond Awkward Side Hugs invites us to leave behind eroticized, fear-based patterns and move toward gendered, generous relationships between men and women of character as we love one another as Jesus did.

“ Beyond Awkward Side Hugs is a deep well of biblical wisdom, and Lea has written with nuance and clarity, humor and grace.” (Jen Pollock Michel, author of Surprised by Paradox and Keeping Place)

“The church desperately needs a bigger vision for how men and women can flourish together in ministry and friendship, and Bronwyn Lea paints a vivid picture for how we’ll get there.” (Steve Wiens, author of Shining Like the Sun , Beginnings , and Whole)