Sex pervades our culture, going far beyond the confines of the bedroom into the workplace, the church and the media. Yet despite all the attention and even obsession devoted to sex, human sexuality remains confusing and even foreboding.

What, after all, is authentic human sexuality?

That is the question Judith and Jack Balswick set out to answer in this wide-ranging and probing book.

Informed by sociology, psychology and theology, the Balswicks investigate how human sexuality originates both biologically and socially, lay groundwork for a normative Christian interpretation of sexuality, show how authentic sexuality is necessarily grounded in relationships, and explore such forms of "inauthentic sexuality" as sexual harassment, pornography and rape.

Since its first publication in 1999, Authentic Human Sexuality has established itself as a standard text at numerous colleges and seminaries. While maintaining the book's overall structure, this new paper edition offers updated discussions and bibliographies throughout, including a completely new chapter on sexual development throughout the human lifespan and a substantially revised chapter on sexual beings in relationship that incorporates a trinitarian theological perspective.

A new generation of students, pastors, psychologists and sociologists engaged in counseling will be indebted to the Balswicks for this updated study of this endlessly fascinating and perplexing facet of human identity.

Avondale Theology/Ministry