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Marriage, Family and Relationships: Biblical, Doctrinal and Contemporary Perspectives
Family life has undergone revolutionary changes in Western society in the past sixty years, posing both theological and ethical challenges for the contemporary church. This volume responds with wide-ranging essays on sexuality, marriage, family life, singleness, same-sex relationships, violence against women, anthropology, gender and culture.
These chapters are essential reading for anyone concerned with Christian teaching on marriage and the family. They balance a clear loyalty to the church’s historic and biblical teaching with a recognition that all doctrine is contextualized. There is a growing gap between the ethics of many Christians and those of wider society, so Christians have to be counter-cultural. In addition, the church has to be self-critical, differentiating between biblical revelation and cultural development, and it must know how to present unchanging Christian convictions to a constantly changing society.
The contributors are Andy Angel, Daniel Block, Rosalind Clarke, Barry Danylak, Andrew Goddard, Stephen Holmes, David Instone-Brewer, Andrew McGowan, Nicholas Moore, Onesimus Ngundu, Oliver O’Donovan, Ian Paul, Andrew Sloane, Katy Smith, Elaine Storkey and Sarah Whittle.
These chapters are essential reading for anyone concerned with Christian teaching on marriage and the family. They balance a clear loyalty to the church’s historic and biblical teaching with a recognition that all doctrine is contextualized. There is a growing gap between the ethics of many Christians and those of wider society, so Christians have to be counter-cultural. In addition, the church has to be self-critical, differentiating between biblical revelation and cultural development, and it must know how to present unchanging Christian convictions to a constantly changing society.
The contributors are Andy Angel, Daniel Block, Rosalind Clarke, Barry Danylak, Andrew Goddard, Stephen Holmes, David Instone-Brewer, Andrew McGowan, Nicholas Moore, Onesimus Ngundu, Oliver O’Donovan, Ian Paul, Andrew Sloane, Katy Smith, Elaine Storkey and Sarah Whittle.
303 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2017
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March 28, 2021
This is a series of 16 essays originally given as papers at a Tyndale seminar. Unsurprisingly they are all from the conservative/orthodox/traditionalist side of the fence with some being more nuanced than others.
The nine essays in Part I focus on Biblical perspectives and include some rather specialist papers on patriarchy in Deuteronomy and paternal discipline in Hebrews as well as more wide ranging discussions such as Ian Paul's paper on sexuality and the resurrection, focussing on Jesus' riposte to the Sadducees' question about Levirite marriage.
Part II focuses on doctrinal and sociological perspectives and is of wider interest to a more casual reader. Oliver O'Donovan gives a typically tightly argued case for a traditional understanding of the Christian Doctrine of Marriage. Andrew Goddard presents a case against Robert Song's Covenant and Calling, Elaine Storkey gives a sobering and informed account of global domestic abuse and Stephen Holmes ends with a very interesting account of cultural trends in our understanding of marriage and how the church has bought into it. His call for a renewed affirmation of celibacy and procreation seems somewhat impossible now.
Overall the essays are argued well and graciously. None offer much comfort to evangelical moderates who wish to find some way of affirming same-sex relationships without changing the doctrine of marriage. O'Donovan comes nearest to this. Holmes, with his call of a renewal of a patristic understanding of marriage, I think ends up opening the door simply because the church will not travel back in that direction and therefore, by his own admission, cannot muster the argumentative ammunition to deny same-sex couples the same goods as heterosexual ones.
The nine essays in Part I focus on Biblical perspectives and include some rather specialist papers on patriarchy in Deuteronomy and paternal discipline in Hebrews as well as more wide ranging discussions such as Ian Paul's paper on sexuality and the resurrection, focussing on Jesus' riposte to the Sadducees' question about Levirite marriage.
Part II focuses on doctrinal and sociological perspectives and is of wider interest to a more casual reader. Oliver O'Donovan gives a typically tightly argued case for a traditional understanding of the Christian Doctrine of Marriage. Andrew Goddard presents a case against Robert Song's Covenant and Calling, Elaine Storkey gives a sobering and informed account of global domestic abuse and Stephen Holmes ends with a very interesting account of cultural trends in our understanding of marriage and how the church has bought into it. His call for a renewed affirmation of celibacy and procreation seems somewhat impossible now.
Overall the essays are argued well and graciously. None offer much comfort to evangelical moderates who wish to find some way of affirming same-sex relationships without changing the doctrine of marriage. O'Donovan comes nearest to this. Holmes, with his call of a renewal of a patristic understanding of marriage, I think ends up opening the door simply because the church will not travel back in that direction and therefore, by his own admission, cannot muster the argumentative ammunition to deny same-sex couples the same goods as heterosexual ones.
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