Beauty, Order, and Mystery

Humans are sexual creatures. Our sexuality can be a beautiful and mysterious expression of what it means to be human. But it can also become distorted and sinful. Perhaps no issue is as urgent for the church today, or confronts it with as many questions, as human sexuality: What does it mean to fulfill God's will through our sexuality? To what extent should our sexuality define who we are? How can we navigate cultural trends around sexuality while being faithful to Scripture? The Center for Pastor Theologians (CPT) seeks to assist pastors in the study and production of biblical and theological scholarship for the theological renewal of the church and the ecclesial renewal of theology. Based on the 2016 annual CPT conference, this volume brings together the reflections of church leaders and academic theologians who seek to answer the urgent questions concerning human sexuality. Contributors engage with Scripture, draw on examples from church history, and delve into current issues in contemporary culture, including embodiment, marriage, homosexuality, pornography, transgenderism, and gender dysphoria. Beauty, Order, and Mystery tackles difficult questions with discernment in order to offer a theological vision of faithful human sexuality for the church. Based on annual CPT conferences, the volumes in the Center for Pastor Theologians series bring together the reflections of pastors and theologians who desire to make ongoing contributions to the wider scholarly community for the renewal of both theology and the church.

Gerald L. Hiestand (PhD candidate, University of Reading) is the senior associate pastor at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the cofounder and director of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He is the coauthor of The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision and the coeditor of Becoming a Pastor Theologian. Todd Wilson (PhD, Cambridge University) is senior pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the cofounder and chairman of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He is the author of Real Christian: Bearing the Marks of Authentic Faith and Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living, the coauthor of The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision and Pastors in the Classics, and the coeditor of Becoming a Pastor Theologian.