For American evangelical Christians, sex is more than just sex – it is a key to salvation (or damnation), depending on how and when it is done. Even the most casual observers are aware, of course, that conservative Christians have long preached that certain forms of illicit sex, such as homosexuality or adultery, could lead one to hell. But Amy DeRogatis argues that evangelicals for the past forty years have also believed that when confined to heterosexual marriage, sexual intimacy can assist a Christian's journey to heaven. Her book Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism examines the way in which evangelicals have given cosmic import to marital sex and explores the tensions that have resulted from this sexual theology.

In what is probably the widest-ranging survey of evangelical popular writing on marital sex yet published, Saving Sex covers purity balls, evangelical advice books for singles, marriage manuals, charismatic theology linking sexually transmitted diseases with demon possession, anti-contraceptive writings from the Quiverfull movement, and the sexual theology of African American evangelicals such as Juanita Bynum. Though the book is organized thematically rather than chronologically, DeRogatis begins her analysis with the earliest evangelical sex manuals of the late 1960s and the 1970s, and concludes by examining recently published works by African Americans who offer healing for those scarred by their sexual experiences.

DeRogatis argues that evangelical views of sex – however odd or antiquated they might seem to secular outsiders – are a direct outgrowth of their belief that marital sex is ultimately connected with salvation. Through sexual purity before marriage and sexual fidelity within marriage, evangelicals can demonstrate their own salvation to themselves and to others; sex in its right context is therefore a means of bearing witness to the world in an effort to save others through conversion. Evangelicals therefore face enormous pressure to get sex “right.” Before marriage, they have to remain celibate, no matter how strong their sexual desires might be, and within marriage, they are expected to experience an exceptionally strong sexual pleasure with their spouse – even if chasing after that pleasure is often an elusive quest that requires an endless number of evangelical marriage manuals.

Evangelicals struggle to find a place for those who do not live up to these standards. On the one hand, evangelicals promise forgiveness and redemption for those who do not remain virgins until marriage – a message that is especially prevalent among African American evangelical writers, but that can also be seen among white evangelical advocates of “secondary virginity.” Yet on the other hand, according to DeRogatis, evangelicals have never given a realistic prescription for women who will never get married, nor do they have solutions for those whose marriages do not live up to the fairy-tale images of the evangelical purity literature. Despite evangelicals' claim to present a countercultural message, their own obsession with sexual pleasure within marriage borrows a lot from popular culture. And despite their claims to present a uniformly biblical message, evangelicals differ among themselves about the parameters of legitimate sex, particularly with regard to birth control, masturbation, and gender roles.

Saving Sex functions best as a birds-eye survey of contemporary evangelical sex writing rather than a detailed analysis of the topic. Most of the source material for the book comes from a survey of popular evangelical books written for fellow believers; the book gives only limited attention to many other key transmitters of evangelical sexual theology, including sermons, Christian music, Christian radio programs, evangelical periodicals, religious television, or church-sponsored marriage retreats. The book does not purport to be a history of evangelical sexual theology, so it has little to say about how evangelical views of marital sex changed over time. DeRogatis's portrayal of evangelical views of sex and salvation seems to imply that evangelicals view sexual purity as a way to attain salvation either for themselves or for the world – a works-based soteriology that is actually at odds with evangelical tradition. It is surprising that a book promising new insight into evangelicals' views of salvation has little to say about evangelical understandings of grace, Christ, or the crucifixion.

In short, this book offers an interesting window on contemporary evangelical views of sexuality, but its source material and range of analysis are too narrow to fully answer the questions that the author outlines in the introduction. Yet even if Saving Sex misses the mark in its description of evangelical views of salvation, its discussion of contemporary evangelical thinking on sex is entertaining and informative, and for that reason the book will work well in many undergraduate courses and be of interest to anyone who is looking for a brief survey of evangelicals' current attitudes toward heterosexual marital sex.