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lasting love -- a book review

Alistair Begg's Lasting Love:  How to Avoid Martial Failure is one of those books on Christian marriage that has been around for a while (I first read this book in 1997 at seminary), but it's been re-released by Moody Publishing in 2015.

Begg tackles some important biblical questions about the nature of marriage:  How to prepare (chapter 2) and what dangers to avoid ("Pulling Weeds" and "Planting Hedges" -- chapters 6 & 7 are the most important in the book!).  It's one of the more accessible books about marriage, easy to read and straightforward.  Lasting Love also contains the stories of real life marriages, so it's not filled with fluff.

But I do wish the material in this re-release had been updated.  The bibliography doesn't contain anything after 1996 -- and there's been so much done on Christian marriage in those twenty years.  In particular, I wish Begg had interacted more with writers like Gary Thomas and Timothy Keller.  While the advice here is sound, it ignores so many of the questions that couples are now forced to ask and the issues with which they're forced to deal.

Ultimately, then, Lasting Love lacks some of its lasting usefulness.  While I'll still use Begg's work in premarital counseling, I doubt I'll recommend it to married couples who come for counseling.
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I received a free copy of this book from Moody Publishers in exchange for my honest review here.