Marriage after Modernity - Christian Marriage in Postmodern Times | |
Marriage after Modernity was published by Sheffield Academic Press, now part of Continuum, and by New York University Press in 1999. I tried to offer a new vision for Christian marriage at a time of unprecedented social and theological change. The book breaks new ground in drawing on earlier traditions of betrothal and informal marriage in welcoming some forms of pre-marital cohabitation, and provides a new defence of the link between marriage and procreation by sketching a theology of liberation for children. Christian principles for the use of contraception by married and not-yet-married couples are restated, and a comprehensive theology of marriage is worked out, based on re-worked biblical models. Marriage as a Christian sacrament, mutually administered in a lifelong partnership of equals is affirmed. A chapter on divorce brings new light to bear on legitimate theological grounds for 'the parting of the ways'. The question of whether marriage is a heterosexual institution is addressed, and particular attention is paid throughout the book to overcoming the distorting effect of the overwhelming androcentric bias of much Christian thought on marriage, on the experience of wives, and even on all those women and men for whom marriage is not their vocation. |
|
Continuum 1999 978-1850759485 | |
View original... |