Purity Makes the Heart Grow Stronger: Sexuality and the Single Christian

by Julia Duin

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Julia Duin is a Seattle-based journalist who has worked as a full-time reporter or editor for everything from the Houston Chronicle to the Washington Times. During the 2014-2015 academic year, she occupied the Snedden Chair as a journalism professor at the University of Alaska/Fairbanks. She specializes in interesting women in religion, such as her award-winning profile of Nadia Bolz-Weber in the December 2014 issue of More magazine; her nearly 6,000-word profile on President Trump’s advisor Paula White in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine in November 2017; and her piece on Delilah Rene, the most famous woman in American radio, for the Seattle Times in April 2019. She’s a three-time Wilbur Award winner (from the Religion Communicators Council) for her magazine and newspaper features and in 2018 was one of five recipients (out of about 720 entrants) of the Iceland Writer’s Retreat Alumni Award. She’s published six books, the latest being In the House of the Serpent Handler: A Story of Faith and Fleeting Fame in the Age of Social Media, a nonfiction work about 20-something Appalachian Pentecostal serpent handlers who use Facebook to publicize their exploits. She’s currently developing a specialty in Arctic religion.