Altared
The True Story of a She, a He, and How They Both Got Too Worked Up About We
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“Altared is a must-read for young Christians hungering for a realistic, biblically rich take on love and marriage in the twenty-first century.”
—Katelyn Beaty, editor, Christianity Today magazine, Her.meneutics
Mar•riage-hap•py \mar´-ij-hap´e¯\ adj 1: Having an inordinate preoccupation with marital pursuits, sometimes at the cost of other Christian priorities, commonly seen in evangelicals. 2: A giddiness stemming from all things related to marriage.
In the frenzied pursuit of romance, Christians sometimes lose sight of the greatest commandments: to love God and to love others. Distracted by wedding bells and exuberant hopes for a happily-ever-after, Christians often forget the greater vision of Christ’s call to love.
What if God is less worked up about marriage than we are?
With honesty and insight, Claire and Eli ask us to shift our thinking away from marriage or singleness and toward love and discipleship.
Drawing from luminaries like Augustine, the Desert Fathers, and Bonhoeffer, they invite you to join their real-life exploration of love as they convincingly demonstrate why a love for God and for one’s neighbor are to be our top priorities, whether we are single or married.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two young people who thought they might get married to each other because, since they are good young Christians, they were supposed to marry someone, offer a look at what happened when they didn't quite connect. The authors, pseudonymous to allow greater candor, meet after Eli, then a law student, sends Claire, a writer, an e-mail about an article she wrote. Their relationship develops, and they find that the expectations of evangelical Christian culture regarding marriage almost deform what grows between them. They're hard on clip-art versions of marital bliss. The two are honest and reflective, and their theological critique of what evangelical Christians understand as love and marriage in light of what Jesus said about love that loving God and following Christ are to shape one's heart and choices is forceful. This does restrict the audience for this book to evangelicals, but that is by design. The authors offer solid arguments for the dignity of living singly, a defense that shouldn't be necessary but is. This book is a must for evangelicals who come anywhere near to offering premarital counseling or young adult ministry.
