Monday, July 19, 2010

If You Really Loved Me Book Review

This review is written as part of the Catholic books reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on If You Really Loved Me.


This book by Jason Evert, a popular Catholic chastity speaker, is written in a question and answer format. It's hilarious. It's insightful. It's an easy read. It contains solid Catholic orthodoxy. It is chocked full of examples and analogies so as to make it real and not abstract like many other books of this genre. A brief excerpt to illustrate this point:
If you are unsure whether a particular action could be sinful, then love demands that you refuse to go there. Suppose I put a teaspoon of powder into a cup of tea for my wife. I look at the bowl where I got the powder. It reads "sugar" on one side and "rat poison" on the other. Do I say, "Oh, it's probably not poison. I'll give it to her anyway"? If I loved her, then I would never do something that was possibly lethal for her...
A few chapter headings: Dating and Courtship, STDs, How to Stay Pure, Vocations, Contraception (particularly informative, well explained and thorough), a brief (4 questions) section on Homosexuality, and a whole section on by far the most asked question: How Far is Too Far?

It's appropriate for teenagers and beyond. It needn't be read cover to cover but can serve as a reference guide for those involved in youth and young adult ministry, for those who are dating/courting/engaged, or for anyone who wants to get a handle on this area of Catholic moral teaching.

Best book I've ever read? No. Best book on the subject? No. A useful and helpful resource? Absolutely.

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