For Fidelity: How Intimacy and Commitment Enrich Our Lives - Hardcover

Wallace, Catherine M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375400796 ISBN 13: 9780375400797

Publisher: Knopf, 1998

Synopsis

In this direct, eloquent, unabashed argument on behalf of sexual fidelity--its meaning, its blessing, its rewards, its necessity--Catherine Wallace addresses a major concern of our time.

At a time when emotional commitments are increasingly nervous, fragile, and short-lived, Wallace's vision of faithful lovers--with its aura of warmth, calm, and emotional continuity--is almost shockingly attractive.

Speaking to heterosexuals and homosexuals alike, she reminds us how deeply the powerful physical tempest that is sexual desire is connected to heart and soul, how immediately and profoundly it spirals to the core of our very identity; how reductive casual sex can be, how easily it can mute, indeed injure, the capacity for ultimate sexual happiness that exists only within the full development of true intimacy--intimacy that arises as fidelity is established and a promise is kept.

What's the difference between fidelity and repression or mere sexual exclusivity? How can people stay faithfully married for decades, while continuing to grow--and to change--as individuals? How do we help our sons and daughters sort through the conflicting messages about sexuality with which they are bombarded from childhood? The author's responses to these and other questions powerfully suggest to us that honor and courage, commitment and kindness to self and others, are indeed within our reach.

Catherine Wallace's gentle, moving, and persuasive argument for fidelity as the core of an entire way of being again and again draws assent from the reader--and provides, at last, a mode of talking with our children about a subject crucial to their success in achieving the fulfilled lives we so fervently wish for them.

About this title

Review

Most churches don't know how to talk about sex. For honest Christians, "Don't do it" and "Don't worry about it"--the most common church teachings, depending on where you come from--are equally unworkable. Furthermore, it's painfully difficult to find books that fully engage the revelations of the sexual revolution and also take seriously traditional Christian teaching on the value of monogamy. For Fidelity: How Intimacy and Commitment Enrich Our Lives by Catherine M. Wallace manages to do just that, in a tone that is never condescending or hubristic and with a style that is always fluid, literary, and humorous. For gay, straight, young, old, married, and single readers looking for guidance about how and when to have sex, For Fidelity offers sound advice. For some, it offers the answer. For everyone, it articulates an ideal of passionate commitment that should not be ignored.

From the Back Cover

"A constant touchstone of realism and honesty.... A reasoned case where all too few are brave enough to venture. ?The New York Times

"[Wallace] makes an eloquent case for sexual fidelity." ?The New Yorker

"[Wallace] is a stylist and thinker of uncommon intellectual charm; she's that rare creature among writers, someone both witty and wise.... [For Fidelity is] rich and subtle." ?Hungry Mind Review

"An intriguing and convincing set of arguments for fidelity in marriage, in relationships, and in life in general." ?Houston Chronicle

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0375400796
• ISBN 13: 9780375400797
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 172