Guiding God's Marriage

In this smart and beautifully written book, Irby gives us an unprecedented inside look into Christian marriage preparation, revealing how religious communities mediate soulmate and covenant faith-based understandings of marriage in response to larger social changes such as high divorce rates and increasingly romanticized ideas of reasons to get and stay married. In doing so, Irby leaves a lasting sociological lesson that, just as with religion itself, efforts to prepare Christians for marriage offer a way to be part of a social power greater than our individual selves. * Jennifer Randles, author of Proposing Prosperity?: Marriage Education Policy and Inequality in America * What makes a ‘good marriage?’ How do we feel about gender roles? How should we argue and process emotions? For young Christian couples, nailing down those answers is actually far more difficult than you might expect. With a wealth of data, Irby shows us how Evangelical and Catholic premarital couples navigate conflicting messages from the culture, counseling groups, books, and other resources to prepare for challenges on the other side of ‘I do.’ Written with empathy and nuance, this is a book scholars, clergy, counselors, couples, and anyone interested in the changing landscape of Christian marriage will want to pour over. * Samuel L. Perry, University of Oklahoma *