From the publisher:

“Countless Christian men struggle with the addictive power of porn. But common spiritual approaches of more prayer and accountability groups are often of limited help.

In this book neuroscientist and researcher William Struthers explains how pornography affects the male brain and what we can do about it. Because we are embodied beings, viewing pornography changes how the brain works, how we form memories and make attachments. By better understanding the biological realities of our sexual development, we can cultivate healthier sexual perspectives and interpersonal relationships. Struthers exposes false assumptions and casts a vision for a redeemed masculinity, showing how our sexual longings can actually propel us toward sanctification and holiness in our bodies.”

I recommend this book to men battling pornography, and to men who’ve yet to realize they should battle it. Struthers’ strongest point is his most simple, but it can shake men from complacency over their online habits: pornography physically changes the brain in frightening ways, forming neural pathways that enslave men to sin, pushing them further down a depraved road.

Sound grim? Perhaps, but then so it would seem are the consequences of the habit. Struthers does offer hope in Wired for Intimacy. In fact, that’s the point of the book, to, yes, present the serious reality of viewing pornography, but then to show a way out. Struthers writes, “Imagine that you could be neurologically ‘enslaved’ to purity rather than porn. Enslaved to seeing the dignity of each individual rather than their utility to you. This is the distinction between the journey toward sanctification and the journey toward depravity.”

Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain is available from all major outlets, including Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Fasting has always confused me. People tell me glorious tales of what God has done in response to their fasting, but all I ever seem to get from it is hunger pains, headaches, and bad breath. I was curious what light McKnight could shed on the topic for me.

McKnight says, “Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life.” It is not, he contends, primarily a means of ramping up the intensity of our prayers with the purpose of getting a response out of God. Rather, it is identifying with how God feels about a situation and bringing our whole self, body and spirit, into agreement.

I found Scot McKnight’s take on fasting refreshing and well-researched. He did his homework, reading broadly on the topic and appealing to the Scriptures to support his views. At 165 pages (with plenty of white space), you can read it in an afternoon. And it is certainly worth a reading.

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Zondervan, 2009), is refreshingly different. Author Scot McKnight brings to bear solid scholarship in his critique of how we’ve read the Bible in the past and his proposal for how we read it moving forward. Along the way, McKnight guides readers to ask tough questions of themselves: Why do I believe certain commands from the Old Testament were for ancient times but not for today? How do I determine which are still relevant and which are not?

Take Leviticus 19 as an example. In verse 11, the writer says, “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.” We would all say these instructions are for today. But just a few verses later in the same chapter, we read, “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material” (vs. 19). Is that also a command for today? What about other laws in the same chapter that say not to trim our beards or tattoo our bodies? Regarding the Bible’s instructions for living, what do we keep, and what do we toss?

McKnight’s solution to these questions is both intelligent and intriguing, and his writing style is–unlike that of so many authors of similar books–never dry. He keeps your attention with well-reasoned, sometimes hilarious prose. In what is perhaps my favorite quote, McKnight says, “… Some folks see some of the goofiest things in the Bible, and I wish I could just blow Holy-Spirit-air on them and cure them of their silliness.” The Blue Parakeet is Scot Mcknight’s attempt at just that. It’s an attempt well worth reading.