Tag Archives: Marriage

Meanderings…

Books, Culture, ,

Hunsinger, Barth with Charity CoverThe other day I found a few interesting articles while browsing – something I don’t get to do often enough, it seems…

“Barth Wars” at Princeton?
My copy of George Hunsinger’s new book arrived on Monday, and I hope to read it as soon as semester is over and the marking is in. I had opportunity to meet with both George and Bruce McCormack at Princeton during my visit last December. Perhaps the word “war” is a bit rich, but the interpersonal friction between the two eminent Barth scholars is sad. I have learnt a great deal from both and respect them both very highly, even if I don’t agree with them on every point.

On Marriage and Millennials from First Things

To my students, the authors of “What is Marriage?” are making a troubling move, reducing the purpose of marital sex to its reproductive function. What they seemed less able to recognize is that they have inherited the inverse: a view of sex with little meaningful connection to procreation. And once such a view of sexuality is embraced, there is not much foothold, aside from appeals to biblical authority, to support the conjugal understanding of marriage.

Another book that I enjoyed but also found funny was Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible. It was funny because his sociological approach highlighted in a humorous way, the way evangelicals often use the Bible. This even-handed review treats the book fairly, and rightly suggests that Smith has caricatured evangelicals as a group. Smith’s attack on the word “biblicism” is perhaps too general, even though he carefully nuances what he means by the term. I still think that “biblicism” is okay, if what is meant by the term is a respect for and commitment to the authority of Scripture. Obviously there are different models for understanding that authority. One weakness of the review is that the author does not really engage with Smith’s constructive chapter on christological interpretation.

Speaking of Scripture, the theme and Call for Papers for next year’s Los Angelos Theology Conference has been announced: The Voice of God in the Text of Scripture. If I lived in North America, I would go. As it is, I will wait for the book…

Two Articles on Sexual Ethics

Culture, , , , ,
gay_liberation_monument_manhattan - Sculpture by George Segal
gay_liberation_monument_manhattan – Sculpture by George Segal

Two interesting articles over at First Things. What is of interest to me in both articles is the question of what constitutes marriage, and more fundamentally, what the “good” of marriage is.

The first article (“Sex and Danger at UVA”) is a response by two senior academics to the University of Virginia’s response to the now discredited Rolling Stone article of December 2014 which reported on a supposed gang rape and rape culture at the University. The article argues that the University is complicit in the development of a destructive culture of sexual practice that is harmful, especially to women. The article navigates the difficult relationship between women’s choice, which the authors want to affirm, and the (quaint-sounding?) idea that women must be protected from rapacious attitudes, practices and environments which is the main burden of the essay. Their argument hangs on the implicit idea that the political culture based on rights and freedom is insufficient to secure the kinds of relationships between the sexes which are mutually beneficial and honouring. Habits, practices and structures which help form virtuous patterns of character and interaction are required.

The second article by Peter Leithart (“The Failure of Gay Marriage”) questions what gay marriage will do to marriage itself, and suggests that its impact will be negative. However, he does not assign the blame for this to the gay community. Rather, it is the result of heterosexual attitudes adopted decades ago which value marriage primarily as a romantic attachment.

“The whole set of fundamental, irrational assumptions that make marriage such a burden and such a civilizing force can easily be undone.” This is a powerful argument, but doesn’t give sufficient weight to a point that Schulman acknowledges early on: The fact that “romantic marriage” was invented by heterosexuals, and the detachment of sex from marriage and marriage from kinship was accomplished long before anyone began seriously proposing gay marriage. Gay marriage may further damage marriage; but heterosexuals damaged marriage nearly beyond recognition all on our own.