McClintock believes that shame, particularly tied to the body and sexuality, is restrictive and harmful in all its forms. She makes the case for how by remaining unexamined, shame is frequently the underlying cause of problems in congregational life that on the surface at least, appear to be about other things. What she says is most needed for healing are conditions in which the truth may be told in a context of trust and playfulness that are the marks of redemptive Grace.

One of the many strengths of the book, aside from the author's clear, conversational and engaging style, is the balance between personal anecdotes, supporting scholarship and case histories. An ordained United Methodist clergyperson with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and experience as a pastoral counselor, parish pastor and consultant, Dr. McClintock draws on a wide range of encounters with persons and systems utilizing the perspectives of pastoral psychology, family systems theory, Biblical narratives and learnings from her own personal history to illustrate her theme. Other authors have addressed sexual shame from the vantagepoint of personal histories of abuse and clergy misconduct, which Dr. McClintock also addresses briefly, but her theme is larger than these. I found her perspective fresh in that she is aiming the arrow of her insights straight to the heart of the shame related to sexuality that binds us at all levels, but particularly in our common life within the local congregation.

The book's immediate value to the discipline and practice of pastoral care is in identifying the larger contextual problem to individual human problems and in encouraging a relationship between pastoral counselors and congregational leadership to partner together in promoting respectful conversations about sexuality and spirituality in the same breath at all levels of the church. "The church's task is to call people into relationships within the context of love. We don't need shame to do this." (p54)

If I have one criticism of the book it is that perhaps the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic positions are misrepresented or perhaps more accurately, under-represented, without admission that there might be more to the relationship between asceticism, sexuality and the redemptive process in Christian Tradition than is frequently appreciated by twentieth century Protestant revisionists. I certainly agree that we do not need to instill shame in deliberate or unconscious ways and the ideas presented in this helpful volume when offered by loving, informed and empathic souls, will go a long way in helping us avoid this. At the same time, we should avoid the mistake of trying to achieve elimination of shame apart from the process of obedience to God, and in repeatedly failing to do this, recognize the usefulness of the shame we inevitably feel returning again and again to the feet of the loving Lord in repentance. Otherwise we will subtly and inevitably substitute ourselves in the place of God with the result that shame's alter ego, shamelessness, will result. May our Lord save us from both extremes and lead us into the joy of embodiment. After all we will not be raised bodiless spirits, but in the flesh.