A BIG THANKS to all who turned out for the 3rd Annual Sex & the Soul Blogathon!! So many great posts — and conversations begun.

And a special THANKS! to Abbie Smith for offering 5 copies of her forthcoming book Celibate Sex: Musings on Being Loved, Single, Twisted, and Holy.

Everyone who Tweeted, Shared, posted, or commented over the three-day event were eligible to win — and randomly assigned a number. Five numbers were then selected — at random — from Random.org.

The WINNERS of a copy of Abbie Smith’s Celibate Sex are:

1. Montana Jones

2. Elizabeth Chapin

3. Hanna Easley

4. Jim Whaley

5. D. Merricks

And if you didn’t win — let me encourage you to pre-order your copy by clicking here.

About the book:

Celibate Sex explores sexuality apart from marriage, and as part of God’s image and design for all.

Nothing awakens the soul more than an invitation to a love story, except realizing you’ve been proposed a role in it. And Celibate Sex does just this. Uncovering a language and preliminary theology for single spirituality, these pages explore topics as commonplace as “dating,” and as taboo as “masturbation,” acting as a can-opener, maybe, for Christian conversations bottled-up for too long.

Celibate Sex articulates the wholeness of every individual, not based on a diamond, or eventual spouse by one’s side, but on a recognition of God’s personalized proposal to be with us from this day forward—and for our recognized significance of being called to communion with a God who knows communion in his own being.

The content mixes edgy, colloquial approaches of language and story, with straightforward Biblical references and conclusions. The work avoids generic approaches to singleness, like offering 3-steps to find your mate, or neglecting your “unmated” state altogether. Rather, it attempts to unpack a non-theologians theology of singleness—a single girl learning to follow Jesus and find freedom in her sexuality in today’s Church and culture.

About the author:

Abbie Smith graduated from Emory University (03) as a religion major and went on to Talbot Seminary for a masters in spiritual formation and soul care (09). She’s written a few other books and reside in a transitional neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia with my husband, Micah and our daughter, Elliana.