The Marriage Builder

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 192 pages
• Published by: Zondervan April 13, 1992
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0310548012
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0310548010
• Book Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 5.6 ounces

Product Description
An all-new discussion guide for couples has been added to this classic best-seller to allow readers to dig into it and apply it to their own lives and marriages.

Back Cover Copy
Psychologist Larry Crabb cuts to the heart of the biblical view of marriage: the "one-flesh" relationship. He argues convincingly that the deepest requirements of human personality -- security and significance -- ultimately cannot be satisfied by a marriage partner. We need to turn to the Lord, rather than our spouse, to satisfy our needs. This frees both partners for "soul oneness," a commitment to minister to our spouse's requirements rather than manipulating them to meet our own needs. With "soul oneness" comes renewed "body oneness," where couples enjoy sexual pleasure as an expression and outgrowth of a personal relationship. The Marriage Builder also identifies three building blocks essential to constructing marriage: the grace of God, true marriage commitment, and acceptance of one's mate. Now for the first time, discussion questions have been added to aid couples who want to come to deeper understanding of marriage. Helpful to counselors and laypersons alike, The Marriage Builder is for anyone who longs to transform marriage from trial to triumph.

Reader Reviews
"The Marriage Builder" by Dr. Larry Crabb has become something of a classic in the genre of Christian books on husband-wife relationships. In it, Crabb highlights three relational areas: the couple's spiritual relationship to God, their social/soul relationship to one another, and their physical relationship to each other. When dealt with properly, and in priority order, Crabb asserts that relationships will be healthy (not necessarily happy, since that is not God's goal nor guarantee for life this side of heaven). Discussing the spiritual relationship, Crabb explains that when God cleanses sin through salvation, His grace simultaneous quenches the deepest thirsts in the human soul. Rather than beings some new-age mantra as some claim when they critique Crabb, the concept of longings, desires, thirsts, and hunger is both biblical and historical (church history). The Trinitarian God of the Bible created humanity in His relational image. Since human beings are finite, they will always long for the infinite--for God's infinite holy love. Once a husband and wife have come to understand that all they need is God and what He chooses to provide, Crabb notes that then they can quit the old "tic on a dog" relationship of mutual manipulation. Instead, they can begin a relationship of mutual ministry. In this area, Crabb explores God's essential design for the masculine and feminine soul. He posits that males have a deep social longing for respect, which coincides with Paul's teaching in Ephesians 5. Crabb also explains that females have a deep social longing for intimacy, also correlating with Paul's teaching in Ephesians 5. As couples learn to drink fully from the God of the universe and to serve one another "heapin' helpins'" of respect and intimacy, then they are prepared to experience body oneness (not simply fun sex). One in their walk with God, one in their relationship with each other, now they move toward physical oneness. "The Marriage Builder" is a classic because it remains true to God's classic teaching on relationships. We are spiritual beings designed to worship God; we are social beings designed to mutually minister to and intimately connect with one another; and we are physical beings, designed in the state of marital matrimony, to experience body oneness. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming, "Beyond the Suffering: The Story of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."