Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews

The Pursuit of Marriage Oneness: The Key to Marital Success by Dr. Hobson Irving Wilson offers a wealth of advice as he pairs his points and topics with biblical sound examples and Bible verses. His many years of experience both as a husband and a marriage counselor shine through in this helpful book! This is a quick read filled with some great advice for both everyday and long-term living. Great for newlyweds as well as those who have been together for decades. I’ve read similar books, and something that stood out for me about Wilson’s approach is his use of a wealth of Bible verses to back each of his points and to provide biblical examples of people who lived out these traits. I loved seeing how The Pursuit of Marriage Oneness was laid out, and seeing everything presented in such a straightforward and easy-to-follow way. This book was easy to read, and the advice is given by Dr. Hobson Irving Wilson in ways that are easy to apply, starting today and that will last a lifetime. These are things that will help both the marriage and qualities that will also help as a family in matters of parenting and presenting a unified approach to leading a household, as well in other relationships outside the home by living godly examples that lead to a more biblical centered life. This book would make a wonderful gift or addition to any home and shows great wisdom and insight into what makes a biblical marriage special.

Publishers Weekly-BookLife Reviews

Arguing that, in recent decades, American marriages have increasingly strayed from “biblical precepts and principles,” Wilson makes the case that true happiness, fulfillment, and stability in wedlock comes from “a union of three”: the husband, the wife, and Jesus Christ. Wilson calls for a return to “covenant” marriages, which means loving a spouse through the love of God and continual offering of the self to each other, holding to clearly defined roles for the union’s partners, and “weaving together sacrificial commitment (ahava), intimate friendship (raya), affection, and sexual intimacy (dod), producing the harmony of marriage oneness.” Drawing on scripture, scholarship, and his experience as a pastor and Christian counselor, Wilson lays out, in clear and inviting language, the theological and practical underpinnings of marriage oneness. He urges couples not to drift into “worldly” understandings of marital partnership, noting that the “covenant partners,” driven by love and faith in each other and God, no longer live just for their individual selves. Instead, “We die to ourselves and begin a new walk with our covenant partner.” Separate chapters on both a husband and wife’s sexual fulfillment and the “debt of love” owed to the other are frank but not explicit, taking inspiration from the Song of Songs; Wilson calls for “mutual submission” and “giving self in mutually sharing physical pleasures.” The question of “submission” has been complex and controversial in Christian marital guides for generations. Wilson argues that a wife’s “voluntary submission” to her husband’s leadership comes out of “respect and affection for him and reverence to Christ” and that the true authority figure in marriage is Jesus. Christian readers eager to strengthen their marriages while honoring their faith will find this guide welcome.