For most Christians, marriage is considered a sacrament, created and uniquely blessed by God. Yet, the theology of marriage rarely matches the actual experience. Marriage is too often a violent, loveless institution-and it is increasingly delayed, avoided, or terminated.
Marriage After Modernity
offers new hope for Christian marriage at a time of unprecedented social and theological change. It provides an unreserved commendation of Christian marriage, reaffirming its status as a sacrament and institution of mutual self-giving. At the same time, it breaks new ground. It draws on earlier traditions of betrothal and informal marriage to accept some forms of pre-marital cohabitation and provides a new defense of the link between marriage and procreation by sketching a theology of liberation for children. Chapters shed new light on divorce and legitimate theological grounds for 'the parting of the ways,' contraception, and the question of whether marriage is a heterosexual institution. Particular attention is paid throughout the book to overcoming the androcentric bias of much Christian thought and the distorting effect it has had on marriage.
argues for a vision of marriage which does not abandon its history, and which draws upon its premodern roots to grapple with our current social, cultural, and intellectual upheavals.