Evangelicals are Rethinking Freud, Friendship, and Sexuality by D J Brennan
This blog post by Brennan is rather long, so I would invite you to click this link and visit his blog to read the whole page:
(Link): Evangelicals are Rethinking Freud, Friendship, and Sexuality by D J Brennan
A few excerpts (from the introduction):
- I had the unusual pleasure last month of seeing two new books authored by evangelicals released within 24 hours of each other and both were highly affirmative of friendships between the sexes.
- Debra Hirsch’s Redeeming Sex (imagine a book written by an evangelical with “sex” in the title that highly values deep cross-sex friendship!) and Joshua Jones’Can Christian Men and Women Be Friends? summon evangelicals to rethink Freud, Jesus, and Friendship.
- In just five, count’em, five short years after the publication of my groundbreaking book, Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions, these two books join me in advancing the conversation on sexuality and friendship. These two authors call evangelicals to explore an intimately relational ethic of friendship between men and women. However, they don’t want to us to avoid Freud; instead, we discover we are profoundly sexual beings who are called to love one another in deep friendship.
- How cool is that?
- I already blogged on my friend, Deb Hirsch’s trailblazing book, (Link): here. Joshua Jones’ new book blazes a new trail from a different angle: Jones, as a happily married man boldly takes us where no complementarian man has gone before (at least in a book). Jones wants evangelicals to know deep intimacy in friendship is desirable between men and women.
A few other excerpts:
- …I give [the book] Can Christian Men and Women Be Friends? five stars for bravery—for daring Christians to think of the spiritual beauty of friendship between the sexes. As someone who has embraced egalitarian friendship between men and women at all levels, I welcome any complementarian turn toward friendship beyond Freud.
- …I was taught to contain my sexuality within my marriage (conflating sex with sexuality) as a complementarian, but I had no language for what I was experiencing in my friendships with women.
- As those began to grow, again and again I had Bible loving complementarians bring up the “sex part” as a major obstacle to cross-gender friendship. I did encounter a couple of trusted friends who were more open to the idea and they were a great encouragement to me.
- But many committed Christians thought friendship was not big enough to overcome the sex part. In my ongoing reflection I came to see that behind the sex part were some huge cultural narratives that complementarians portrayed as “biblical.”
- One was this fierce notion that “one flesh” which was interpreted as a marital exclusivity that ruled out any close friendship with the opposite sex. Second, was this popular Freudian idea that lurking underneath the surface desire to connect with members of the opposite sex was an unconscious desire for sexual intercourse.
Please read the rest here:
(Link): Evangelicals are Rethinking Freud, Friendship, and Sexuality by D J Brennan
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Related Posts (on this blog):
(Link): Brotherly Love: Christians and Male-Female Friendships
(Link): The Church Needs Men And Women To Be Friends – from The Beginning of Wisdom Blog
(Link): The Islamic Billy Graham Rule – Unmarried Muslim People Are Punished For Being Alone Together
(Link): Patriarchy tends to sexualize all male / female relationships (article via Junia Project blog)
(Link): Pervy Preacher from Seattle who teaches men “to objectify women, by his over emphasis of sexualization of women and subservience” (Re Driscoll) Purity
(Link): Topics: Friendship is Possible / Sexualization By Culture Of All Relationships
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