The sacred romance drawing closer to the heart of God

Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

The book the Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God takes the form of a self-help book, whereby instead of encouraging readers to improve their external relationships with others and to find fulfillment with common cultural constructs and narratives of male and female sexual relationships, the reader is instead encouraged to first establish a fulfilling relationship of love and devotion with the divine essence as a Christian. The book is particularly inspiring to a Christian seeking an artistic or literary life, because the authors see the relationship between humanity and God as a romantic as well as a theological narrative.

The summary narrative of the book takes the form of the two authors relating experiences of their own life, in religious terms, and relating these personal experiences to the books of the Bible and other religious texts such as Milton's "Paradise Lost." The main Biblical texts the authors draw from are the gospel narratives, the prophetic narratives, and the Song of Solomon, the most poetic and metaphorical 'love text' of the Hebraic Bible. The metaphorical romance of church and believer in Jesus' words, in the letters of Paul, and of Solomon's Song provide the metaphorical justification for the theological tale of romance Curtis and Eldridge spin.

Thus, the main point of the authors of this text, of John Curtis and Robert Eldredge, is that humanity must willingly and willfully seek a fulfilling romance with God, and put religious fulfillment before all other things. They first point out that the Bible's initial narrative is of a romantic betrayal of obedience, the story of Adam and Eve, a betrayal that humanity is always striving to atone for, and that God continually forgives humanity for, because of God's infinitely good nature. The authors also relate this romantic struggle to the prophetic books where Israel's adulterous heart is written of, another example of humanity's tendency to fall out of the divine marital contract. Yet the Song of Solomon that likens Israel and its believers in the one true God to a bride shows that humanity and God are ever capable of fulfilling this romantic and marital pledge to one another. The authors also relate this romantic metaphor in Christian terms, such as when Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom and his Church the bride.

Thus, over the course of the text of the Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis and John Eldredge try to inspire their readers to cease to fill their desire for fulfillment with worldly pleasures and transient pleasures of the flesh. The need for romance and desire via the heart is portrayed as the key element of Christian life, rather than the fulfillment of the mere human body or the head, the physical or intellectual essence. The authors address an audience whom they assume may be undergoing a spiritual conflict. Without God, life is stagnant and unhappy, although this lack of purpose may seem like a lack of finding the 'right person,' the 'right vocation,' or making enough money. But all loves for things other than God are mere substitutions for the real thing. The authors make use of personal narratives to use their own lives as examples that God, despite occasional evidence that might falsely sway the reader to believe the contrary, is good, and desires His perfect creation of humanity to strive to be good, and hopes that humanity will seek best way to lead a truly purposeful and happy existence. (This is, as opposed to a merely, momentarily pleasurable life). The best way to true happiness for a Christian is to abandon one's self to God's will and divine essence.