This is from James Smith's newest book, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. I am really looking forward to reviewing this book here in the coming week. This excerpt below is not within any kind of immediate context of the ordered beauty of male-female friendship but there is so much relevant to it:
"What if we didn't see passion and desire as such as the problem, but sought to redirect it? What if we honored what the marketing industry has got right--that we are creatures of love and desire--and then responded in kind with counter-measures that focus on our passions, not primarily our thoughts and beliefs? What if the church began with an affirmation of our passional nature and then sought to redirect to it?"