Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Question for my legions of readers

In my experience, I've seen a lot of books about marriage that really mostly deal with the psychology with a little bit of Bible "window dressing" added. I've seen a lot of books for fathers on how to raise sons or daughters, and a lot of books for mothers for the same.

What I can't put my finger on; are there books out there helping women to bless their husbands' leadership, or for men to bless their wives' submission and homemaking? It seems to me that while many (say Focus on the Family) do a great job with the day to day, the spiritual foundation for a truly great marriage is being neglected by most Christian authors. Any thoughts? The closest I can think of these days is some of the work of Douglas Wilson.

7 comments:

Pilgrim said...

Wilson's Reforming Marriage really is quite good. The Wife is currently reading Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney with the other women in our small group, and she's growing in grace for it. Wayne Mack's Strengthening Your Marriage is great, too. One that is so-so is Created to be His Help Meet by Debbie Pearl. Some of her views are fringy, and she mostly just argues via anecdote and experience, but there are still some good things in there.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Faith says that she's reading the Debbie Pearl book and likes it pretty well, though not beyond reproach. Apparently her attitude towards her husband is good, but her attitude towards those who might not be in agreement with her views leaves something to be desired.

Stephen said...

I'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but Gary Thomas's book Sacred Marriage is very good.

pentamom said...

Martha Peace's "The Submissive Wife" is good in this respect. She didn't exactly sit down with the goal of helping women to bless their husbands' leadership, but that concept is at least in peripheral view, and the treatment is thoroughly biblical. I also second Feminine Appeal as being pretty good.

On the male side, I don't know of anything other than Doug Wilson that fits the mold.

pentamom said...

Oh, for crying out loud, it's not "The Submissive Wife" it's "The Excellent Wife." Not only was writing it that way lazy and inaccurate, it makes the book sound like a manual on being a doormat rather than an overall scriptural treatment of what it means to be a good wife. She certainly believes in godly submission, but I feel like I misrepresented her and the book by implying that she's one of those folks who think that submission is the entire story. My apologies!

Bike Bubba said...

I misrepresented it to my dear sweet wife as "The Perfect Wife," went on to assure her, tongue in cheek, that I wanted her to go to class every day.

Thank God she has a sense of humor.

Thanks, all!

Gino said...

"The Proper Care And Feeding Of Husbands", though not bible based,is judeo-christian tradition based, and is a contributibg reason as to why the blonde moved back up to Wife status.