How is “Holy Sexuality and the Gospel” Different From “Out of a Far Country”?
Christopher Yuan discusses the question, “How is Your Book “Holy Sexuality and the Gospel” Different From “Out of a Far Country”?
Christopher unpacks this question about sexuality, and many more, in his new book, HOLY SEXUALITY AND THE GOSPEL.
You can read a sample of Christopher’s book here: http://bit.ly/2FMb6H2 ***
“The Bible is the most important book the world has for all generations. The Bible is our guide to faith and life. Nothing can compete with it or improve it. But in Dr. Christopher Yuan’s Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, you are holding in your hands the most important humanly composed book about biblical sexuality and godly living for our times.”
—Rosaria Butterfield, PhD, speaker and author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Openness Unhindered, and The Gospel Comes with a House Key.
“I read a lot of books, and Holy Sexuality and the Gospel is on the shortlist of most important books I’ve read in the past decade. There’s a desperate need for a biblically astute and theologically grounded yet warm and personal approach to human identity and how it does and doesn’t relate to gender and sexuality. This is that book. Holy Sexuality and the Gospel is profoundly relevant in an age of toxic confusion. It should be read by every person questioning their sexual identity as well as by every pastor, parent, friend, or sibling.”
—Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven, Happiness, and The Purity Principle and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries
“A truly breathtaking book that unpacks the soul issues of gender. This book not only gets at the heart of sexuality; it gets at the heart of the gospel. Yuan is an insightful thinker and keen storyteller.”
—J. D. Greear, author of Not God Enough, sixty-second president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC
From the author of Out of a Far Country, which details his dramatic conversion from an agnostic gay man who put his identity in his sexuality to a Bible professor who now puts his identity in Christ alone, comes a gospel-centered discussion of sex, desire, and relationships. Dr. Christopher Yuan explores the concept of holy sexuality–chastity in singleness or faithfulness in marriage–in a practical and relevant manner, equipping readers with an accessible yet robust theology of sexuality. Whether you want to share Christ with a loved one who identifies as gay or you’re wrestling with questions of identity yourself, this book will help you better understand sexuality in light of God’s grand story and realize that holy sexuality is actually good news for all.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
In 2011, I wrote a book with my mother called Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God, A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope. That was our first book. My first book ever, and it was simply our story. It was our journey of faith starting from the day that I came out to my parents and that crisis which brought them to faith. Then the many years that followed of me just running from God, running from my parents, and God and His just amazing love and compassion wooed me to Himself, and our whole family now serving God as a two-generational ministry. That book was really simply our story. I like to tell people “Think of our first book as talking to your heart.”
This next book, Holy Sexuality and The Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story, is taking a concept that I introduced in my first book, holy sexuality chapter 30, one of my last chapters, where I introduced this concept and then fleshing it out. It’s actually really doing a theology of sexuality, so where the first book was heart, the second book is head and hands. It’s really important for us to understand that though we want to … Our gut instinct is to jump in and to love and to show compassion. We need to actually make sure that our compassion is grounded in truth, our love is grounded in the truth because there’s many modes of loves. There’s many means of showing love. But we need to realize first of all that God is love and that God’s love is grounded in His truth.
I think it’s really important where my book started with some good biblical theology, systematic theology, and then jumping into the last few chapters of good practical chapters talking about marriage and singleness. How do I show love to my gay friends who don’t know Christ? How do I help my brother or sister in Christ who experiences same-sex attractions? These very practical things. And I know right away people think “I don’t want to read a book on theology.” “I’m not a theologian” most often times people will say.
The reality is we’ve misunderstood theology. I think there’s a stigma around this concept of theology. The reality is all of us are theologians. If you have any knowledge of God, if you have thoughts about God, you’re a theologian. So actually, the issue isn’t whether you are a theologian or not. The issue is whether you’re a good theologian or not. My hope is to actually show you how we could do good theology. Theology not separated from praxis but actually theology that drives us into praxis because bad theology is theology that lays stagnant and just stays in our mind and doesn’t impel us toward living it out. Good theology is theology that actually impels us to action. That’s the difference of my first book kind of the heart, the story, and my second book now that is mind and hands, that helps us to think right to then do right.