Though dating has become a rite of passage in our culture today, the Bible knows nothing about it. There are no Scriptures that explicitly explain how believers should date because dating, as we know it, comes from culture. Fortunately, the Bible still contains many principles to help believers build a framework for godly dating. In How Should a Christian Date?: It’s Not as Complicated as You Think, Eric Demeter provides principles and guidelines for dating in a God-honoring way.
It is a Christian dating manual that will help you “describe the person you want to marry, make better and faster decisions, save yourself from unnecessary pain, break up well, bring clarity to the confusion of dating, and know when you’ve found The One.” Demeter draws on his own dating experience, research, and Scripture to form the principles to achieve these goals.
The book has twelve chapters covering various aspects of dating, such as the definition of dating, common dating myths, stages of a great relationship, and ways to meet dates. How Should a Christian date? is unique from other dating books because an older single man wrote it. Married people mostly write about dating, so it is interesting to learn from one still single.
The book is highly entertaining and informative. Demeter shares many excellent pieces of dating advice and delivers them humorously and engagingly. Demeter writes in a friendly conversational style and shares many anecdotes about his or his friends’ dating experience. And it makes the book more relatable and enjoyable.
My major drawback from the book is its little biblical support. The principles presented in this book come mainly from the author and conventional wisdom rather than Scripture. This is not to say that the book is unbiblical, only that it is not distinctly Christian enough, in my opinion. I think a non-believer could easily read this book and agree with a lot of its content. I know Scripture doesn’t say much about dating, but I still think the book could have engage Scripture more.
Overall, I enjoyed How Should a Christian Date? and gained practical and interesting dating counsel. But I would only recommend it to mature discerning readers (especially since Demeter addresses extra-biblical revelationns and favorably mentions questionable teachers.)
Moody Publishers graciously gave me a copy, and this is my honest review.
