Sexual Understanding Before Marriage

Title: Sexual Understanding Before Marriage
Genre: Relationships/Religious Self-Help
Author: Herbert J. Miles; introduction by Dr. Paul Popenoe (1888-1979)
Photography: Robert Heyer
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Year: 1979 (14th printing of 1971 book)
Pages: 222
Format: Paperback, mass-market format.
Provenance: First page has an inscription reading, “Beth – Chose to be a woman of God, getting your instructions for life from His Word. Continue to be joyful and smiling – it’s terrific. Love, Jan 12-80“
Chapter Title Examples: Reproductive and Sexual Organs; Why Society Objects to Premarital Sex Relations; Necking, Petting and “Making Out” on Social Dates and During Courtship; Other Pertinent Questions About Sex Discussed; Dealing with Past Sexual Sins; Some Practical Christian Guidelines for Sexual Control from Puberty Until Marriage.
Opening Sentence: “What are the four most important influences in human culture?”
Random Passage: “We live in an evil world, and that world sometimes forces upon us choices that have no clear ‘right’ solution. We are sometimes forced to the lesser of two evils, but that does not make the lesser evil good. What Mrs. Bergmeier did was wrong.”
Notes: “More than 125,000 copies in print!” A realistic, open-minded sex-advice book geared toward young Christians thinking about entering their first marriage. At the time of its publication, Herbert Miles was a former pastor with 20 years’ experience in theology education.