The Thrill of the Chaste
Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On
by Dawn Eden
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Jan 26 2015 | Archive Date May 05 2015
Description
When Dawn Eden released The Thrill of the Chaste in 2006, she was a Jewish convert to Protestant Christianity, preparing to make the final leap into Catholicism. Now, Eden has extensively updated The Thrill of the Chaste, sharing how her Catholic faith, the lives and intercession of the saints, and the healing power of the sacraments have led her to find her true identity in Christ.
This revised, Catholic version offers spiritual and practical advice for both men and women seeking to live chastely in a world that glorifies sex. Eden offers tips to help readers avoid temptation and live faithfully—including dressing modestly, but not being afraid to feel good about the way they look; trusting that God has a plan for their life and relationships; and making sure their “yes” comes from the heart.
Advance Praise
“Writing from her personal experience, Dawn Eden illuminates a path through our devastated hookup culture using practical wisdom and theological insight from a woman’s perspective.”
Rev. Mark Mary
Cohost of EWTN’s Life on the Rock
“Dawn Eden’s wry, poignant Thrill of the Chaste isn’t just another chastity primer but the narrative of a soul redemptively recovering from Gen-X cynicism. Her raw chronicles conjure awkwardly familiar memories without glamorizing sin, all the while focusing on changing the person, not the past, and doing so with the hope of Christ.”
Colleen Swaim
Author of Your College Faith
“According to Jesus Christ—and Dawn Eden—chastity is part of the Good News. Only a pure heart can be a fulfilled heart. Dawn Eden has given us a practical and joyful guide to chaste living.”
Rev. Paul N. Check
Executive Director
Courage International
“Dawn Eden’s book helped me to understand that virtue is about much more than our sexuality; its pursuit is a positive action applicable to our work, our relationships, our prayer, our play, our daily bread—indeed, it is applicable to every aspect of our lives. So is this book.”
Elizabeth Scalia
Catholic blogger and author of Strange Gods
“Very few writers can crank out prose that is at once elegant and funny, engaging and eclectic, and spiritually enriching with no treacly aftereffects—a combination that sums up Dawn Eden’s sweet spot as a new evangelist. I know her sorrow-tinged, but ever hopeful, story is going to change lives.”
Patrick Coffin
Author and host of Catholic Answers Live
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781594715587 |
| PRICE | $15.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Danielle K, Reviewer
An interesting, thoughtful look on the difficulties of finding a balance when dating as a Christian in this modern world. Insightful, with great advice, never preachy and beautifully honest.
Bethanie R, Reviewer
This was one of the best books I have read so far this year. Dawn Eden bears her soul to the world once again to spread the good news: namely that chastity is not only realistic, but desirable. This is the second edition of a book that she wrote when she was just becoming Catholic. So this edition contains a lot more Church teaching and reflects the wisdom gained from yet more maturity.
Some might look down upon this book because it was written by a woman who has chosen to live a celibate life. Eden speaks however as a young woman who has lived the fruit of divorce, the fruit of the “sexual revolution,” the roots of the modern sexual mores. I am a married 30-year-old and I can see her story in my story and the lives of my peers.
She speaks as a woman who has been broken and has sinned. She, like so many other people of my generation, have looked for love in all the wrong places and bought hook-line-and-sinker the myth of strings-free sex. She tells us all about finding fulfillment and joy in something bigger, something better.
She talks of all of these things in a highly practical manner. She is a woman who has lived in the trenches. I pray that this book helps young women everywhere to see the possibility of living in the very counter-cultural way of chastity.
Thank you Ave Maria Press for the opportunity to review this book. I was able to do this through my membership in Netgalley. I cannot recommend Netgalley enough to my bookworm fellow bloggers. The Thrill of the Chaste: Catholic Edition is available now at your favorite bookseller.
Flávia G, Reviewer
Truly inspiring book, with wonderful testimonial from the author. It can help anyone that is seeking to live a chaste life.
Janka H, Educator
Candid and inspiring guide of a kind of how to value and to live chastity.
This book is updated version of the original publication 2006, when Dawn Eden was a convert to Christianity (Protestant). Since then she walked quite a way - she has become Catholic and even made vows to live as a celibate as a vocation.
So this book is a "Catholic" version of the original book.
The book is refreshingly honest and candid (even intellectually honest, which might be a rare nowadays). Dawn, a survivor of the sexual abuse, is not shy to write about how she experienced the searching of her value as a being in the arms of men. And how this not fulfilled her, as it was just a mutual abuse and/or chasing of an illusion, not the real love. But, in my opinion, this experience makes her a very good representant of the chaste life - she is not a long-life celibate, but a former rock music enthusiasist, journalist and agnostic. So why has chastity became so important for her?
Shortly: it is a way of love. And not just a way of better love for the future spouse (if there is any), but the way to love God and yourself (with the healthy self-love and self-value).
As for marriageability of the celibate people, this citation says it beautifully:
“That’s not true,” I responded. “My chances are better now than they’ve ever been, because before I was chaste, I was looking for love in all the wrong places. It’s only now that I’m truly ready for
marriage and have a clear vision of the kind of man I want for my husband. “I may be thirty-seven,” I concluded, “but in husband-seeking years, I’m only twenty-two."
I got some valuable insight from the book - one of the strongest point it that unmarried people may forget what does to be "like a child". Children don’t speculate and compare, they ebjoy the present moment without the added pressure of statuses, expectations and other qualifiers - they can enjoy the simple happiness of just being.
I will try that, too.
While the book (I have not read the original version) have a lot of pros, there are also several cons - like the book is a bit heavy, intellectual reading sometimes. Some things are better to say the simple way (and a lot of passages are just like that, simple and honest). I understand that with many citations from catechism and theological and other books the authoress aims for the clarity of meaning. But it also weakens the simple strength of her statements in my opinion.
I would also love to have more practical tips.
But these are jus minor issues when comparing the honest, personal and witty read this is.
Read it.
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