Not Just Private: Christian Character, Community, and Sexual Practices

Both within the church and outside of it, popular discourse around sex is often shallow and individualistic. This is especially true on the topic of sex outside of marriage. Not Just Private explains how our sexual practices can and should stem from our deeply held, uniquely Christian convictions—convictions that mean we cannot talk about sex apart from Christian community or Christian character. Laying out those foundations allows us to recover Christian insights that many of us have lost and to identify the cultural syncretism that has crept into our churches. With these foundations in view, we can see how sex is not about following rules or avoiding harm but rather about producing certain kinds of individuals and communities. This is a book for Christians who want to be chaste but are not sure why they should be. This is also a book for non-Christians wondering why some Christians practice what Oscar Wilde described as the greatest sexual perversion: namely, chastity. In the end, Not Just Private shows both how Christian perceptions and beliefs are deeply at odds with the practice of extramarital sex and how the perceptions and beliefs that support extramarital sex are unchristian.

Craig Bakker received his PhD in engineering from the University of Cambridge and currently works as a research scientist in Washington State. He has peer-reviewed publications in a variety of different fields including food security, cyber-physical systems, and artificial intelligence.