Faith Dance

I do cherish this...from a dear friend (a new friend this year!) who posted this on my FB page: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!! (a bit belated) I celebrate all the goodness of God in bringing your friendship into my life. What a gift!"



My friendship with her has been a very sweet gift this year!

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Update

I haven't had much time to blog the past couple of weeks--well for that matter, the past month or so because I have been devoting much time to working on the editing changes and revising the manuscript. 

Whew! 

I feel very good about how this is shaping up though. The book does have a more substantial feel to it as I continue to revise it although future readers (advocates and critics) will ultimately be the judge of it. I am hoping to be done with the rewriting by the end of this month.

Cross-Sex Friendship Quote of the Week

“It is possible to learn the skills of enjoying the opposite sex without zooming in on erotic interaction and to take delight in the distinctive beauty of others without wanting to consume or possess it [them]. In popular culture there often is an over-emphasis on erotic sexuality at the expense or neglect of the whole dimension of gender sexuality. This is true for both single and married individuals. God is the ultimate father and we are all brothers and sisters, enjoying each other in His sexual world.”  Rosenau, E. Douglas and Sytsma, R. Michael.

 

Progress

An update as I continue to reshape my book for publication.  I have been waking up, going to work, eating, rewriting, sleeping, waking up, going to work, eating, rewriting...

After not looking seriously at the chapters for over a year, I am quite surprised by how I am reshaping some of them--some of that due to my own reflections a year later, others due to Jennifer's input as she edits this with me as we hash some things out for clarity. 

I am very encouraged how this is shaping up!!!

I should be seeing my book cover soon.  I will share it with you all when I get it.

U2

Jonathan, my 25 year old son calls me up on Friday afternoon.  Says, "I want to tell you in advance so you can get the tickets.  For your Christmas present this year I want help you and Jen can go to the U2 concert."

Cross-sex Friendship Quote of the Week

If I have shared this quote before, it needs to be repeated again:

"The art of incremental intimacy gives spiritual friends ways to practice creative fidelity that equates eroticism, the self-communicating impulse of passion, with communion instead of orgasm.  By privileging intercourse with God over all other forms of intimacy, chastity means rejecting sexual intercourse as the primary basis for human communion, but it also means saying yes to relationships in which passion's self-communicating impulse is mediated in other ways."  Kenda Creasy Dean

It is Official

I will be participating in Trinity Evangelical Divinity's Graduation commencement on December, 18 receiving my certificate of biblical studies. 

Something to Think About

"Attractions to certain persons can be a powerful way God acts in human ordinary life.  Holiness doesn't consist in Buddhist detachment from every single desire, but in fine harmony of discerning which desires are the stirrings of the Holy Spirit so that one might do God's will passionately, yet indifferently." 

Terrance McGoldrick reflecting on Francis de Sales and how passionate desire is a virtue in Christian friendship

Cross-Sex Friendship Quote of the Week

"Love not finding us equal, equalizes us, not finding us united, unites us."  Francis de Sales

Foreward to Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions

Wow! 

Sheila wrote the foreward to my book over the weekend. 

It is in wow territory.

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions: Engaging the Mystery of Friendship Between Men and Women

I like the title for my book.  Things are starting to come together.

28 Years

Sheila and I celebrated our 28th anniversary on Saturday.  The way we looked back then:

What's Hot in Book Publishing

No, it's not The Lost Symbol or The Shack. 

At least in some sense.

Cross-Sex Friendship Quote of the Week

"It's only gnostic if our bodies are only made for sex."  Jennifer Ould

The Overflowing of Friendship: Love and Delight in Male Friendships

This brand new book is an important groundbreaking study on male friendship in the colonial and revoluntionary periods in America.  It is an important book on the breadth and depth of sexuality and friendship.  There have been a number of books recognizing the passionate depth of same-sex friendships among women in recent years.  This book unearths for us the depth of passionate, tender, friendships between men during America's infancy. 

The Overflowing of Friendship: Love Between Men and the Creation of the American Republic by Richard Goodbeer.

Love, Delight, and Friendship

I love this excerpt from Elizabeth Newman in Untamed Hospitality:

Cross-Sex Friendship Quote of the Week

"Rather, our created bodies, male and female, were created to be in communion and fellowship with each other.  This means looking less at the roles we play and more at the ways in which we help each other live virtuous lives while striving toward God."

Jana Marguerite Bennett