Nadia Bolz-WeberShameless: A Sexual Reformation

This book will change your perspective on religion and sex and how we relate to both. I am glad that I decided to read this as it was something I sorely needed.

Great if you’re looking into it for information if you’re looking into it from a more liberal side, not so much if you’re conservative.

Rough, raw, way beyond edgy and bordering on blasphemous but I get it!No one likes to be labeled, especially when the label is insulting, negative, derisive and damning, and that is exactly how Christians have handled sex and lifestyle issues they can't easily relate to. They lash it and poke it to death.The truth is we're all sinners so there is something particularly eschew when one category of sinner starts picking on a different category as if one is in and the other not.Nadia reminds us that you are never going to not be a sinner, and, in shameless, she spits back, and does it well. In fact, from what I've seen and heard elsewhere, she has perfected the art of spitting, but what else can you expect? Before you get too carried away with shaming her language (I flinched a few times myself) just remember that it is a lot worse being a but-head than it is naming one.One last thought. Even though I get it and this book is an understandable response, I wish it wasn't necessary. All the talk about sex becomes consuming after a while. It misses the point and both sides are guilty. Conservatives talk about sex as much as liberals do and the reality is, the more you talk about a thing the bigger it gets. Negative advertising is just as effective as positive advertising.If life was a meal, sex would be the desert but we talk about it so much it has become the side dish at every course, and the conservatives are just as guilty as anyone. I've learned more about porn and promiscuity from testimonials at church than I ever could from Google. So, please read the book and then talk about something more constructive and useful. That approach might have a better chance of changing the world to a more acceptable state.

For over 30 years of faith-- a faith that never dealt seriously with my sexuality or had the courage to directly broach the topic I've searched for ministers and teachers in the faith to stand out in honesty and faith. Rev. booze we her dared to speak out candidly and with humility about the subject we all live with and deal on a day to day basis.She curses, she is fragile, but this is her strength in speaking truth to power of how we are both sexual and spiritual beings in this life. She encompasses Scripture with fact and on the ground lives and living to make clear that our sexuality is not our enemy, but it is a part of our human make up and is not God shuns or is surprised by. In fact, she is one of the few voices in the faith to frankly say that our spirituality and sexuality can communion together honestly and with life while still upholding the hallmarks of the Gospel.She is by far one of the best Christian voices I've had the pleasure to enjoy reading. This book should be in the hands of anyone who wants a realistic and candid approach to the subject of sex and the Christian faith.

As a girl growing up in a conservative Catholic household, I was taught many of the lessons that Nadia mentions in this book (i.e. women who have sex outside of marriage are like chewed gum that no one else will want; women who dress provocatively are guilty of "reverse rape" for making men think impure thoughts; one should never touch oneself on the body parts that are covered by a bathing suit, lest one commit the sin of Onan and be guilty of adultery). I was given these instructions by faithful, well-meaning adults who were doing their best to protect us children from harm, and I know that there are some for whom these types of teachings have been helpful along their spiritual journey. But, I am not one of them. I internalized a deep sense of shame, guilt, and distrust of my body and its desires that has lasted well into adulthood. In large part because of these feelings (and because of the church's teachings about mortal sin), I have long felt that I am not welcome in the church, such as I am....Enter this kickass, empowering, super-important book, which gives voice to all of that! It provides deeper context for the misogyny that has been in many ways perpetrated by church leaders, and offers interpretations of the Bible and of Christian faith that feel far more true to me than what I was taught as a child. I wept about once per chapter, with deep gratitude that someone seemed to understand the devastating complexities that serve to foster sexual shame in Christian communities. This is such a profoundly important conversation - and a timely one, too. Like anything else, the truths in this book will not be recognized or appreciated by everyone. But if you, too, have experienced shame, guilt, or pain related to Christian teachings about your sexuality, please, please pick up a copy of this book. You are not alone!

No, the author didn't extoll Pornhub but she has several axes to grind, especially with conservative Christian values on sexuality, and does a Lizzy Borden on them all. "Celibacy in singleness, fidelity in marriage," purity rings and culture, the chains of virginity, adult-consensual-committed as the new triad of authority for right and wrong and permissible, all stimulating stuff. She scores some good points in critique of the use of guilt to hammer teens in the church over sexual issues, but couches language and attitudes in ways guaranteeing that those already in agreement with her will cheer while others will switch off. I bought her book but, with a few exceptions, not her schlock...may be an oxymoron but a bit too much of "liberal fundamentalism" for my taste.

I knew when I cracked open this book that I would not like it, Bolz Weber has a reputation as the shock jock of so called liberal Christianity, and this book helps cement that reputation. Filled with theological errors and heresies masquerading as truth, it is designed to lead astray the unwary, and those who have chosen the route of error. It is also ignorant of Western Christianity, focusing on so called reformed or evangelical theology, but ignoring (and at times showing a profound and arrogant ignorance of) Catholic doctrine.There heresies are multiple: Individualism linked with Sensualism (the idea that what we like defines what is good for us), antinomianism among them, and she seems to delight in them, proclaiming freedom, but actually binding her followers in the chains of theological ignorance. (Just as Arius and the other heretics did, providing comfortable but heretical untruths, whilst turning people away from the actual, though more difficult to palate truth.)The Bible is a difficult document, and there are those who have been damaged by its misuse and misapplication, but the response to this is not to suggest further misuse and misapplication, but to return to the traditions and theology of Western Catholicism, a tradition which has successfully underpinned Western civilisation for 1,700 years (at least).

I think this is one of the most passionate, honest and co m passionate books on faith and sex that I have ever read. I am old; just wish this kind of honesty and compassion had been around fifty years ago.

I gave this rating because reading this book is like receiving a hug from God if you happen to have grown up in a church culture which was all about don't & gave you an unhealthy view of sex and sexuality. This book isn't saying anything goes but it is saying a whole lot of stuff is healthy & normal.There's alot of great storytelling in this book which seems more mature & settled than some of her earlier writing. This is a pastoral resource rather than an aim to shock book. As a church based community worker with young adults I can't recommend this highly enough.

These days it is rare for me to read a book from cover to cover; to find the time, effort and energy to give a book the attention it deserves. But this book; wow. A thoughtful, engaging, heartfelt read. I am not sure if I agree 100% with all her theological beliefs but I find myself drawn to the warmth and heartfelt conviction of her writing. I will certainly read her other books and look forward to hearing her speak next weekend at greenbelt. Xx

In the blurb on the back, one of the peer-reviews says “..... this will heal many” and Shameless certainly did that for me. Many within me are now whole and if you know what that means then PLEASE read it for yourself. This book will remain in my top three of all time.