Christianity and Family Law

The Western tradition has always cherished the family as an essential foundation of a just and orderly society, and thus accorded it special legal and religious protection. Christianity embraced this teaching from the start, and many of the basics of Western family law were shaped by the Christian theologies of nature, sacrament, and covenant. This volume introduces readers to the enduring and evolving Christian norms and teachings on betrothals and weddings; marriage and divorce; women's and children's rights; marital property and inheritance; and human sexuality and intimate relationships. The chapters are authoritatively written but accessible to college and graduate students and scholars, as well as clergy and laity. While alert to the hot button issues of sexual liberty today, the contributing authors let the historical figures speak for themselves about what Christianity has and can contribute to the protection and guidance of our most intimate association.

“'The authors and editors seek to provide both legal and historical frameworks for the development of family law, stressing the relationship between Christian teachings and various topics. Most are experts on the personages discussed, frequently noting that their contributions are taken from larger works. Almost every chapter reveals new insights, and sometimes the figures themselves are novel (at least to this reader), even though their thoughts may creep into the modern discourse on the family. The editors seek to balance the various divisions in contemporary Christianity and largely succeed. They also include a variety of disciplines.' Margaret F. Brinig, Journal of Church and State”

John Witte, Jr is Robert W. Woodruff University Professor, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, Atlanta. He has published numerous articles and thirty books, including Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation (Cambridge, 2002), The Reformation of Rights (Cambridge, 2007), Christianity and Law (Cambridge, 2008), The Sins of the Fathers (Cambridge, 2009), Christianity and Human Rights (Cambridge, 2010), and The Western Case for Monogamy over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015). Gary S. Hauk is University Historian and former Vice-President and Deputy to the President of Emory University, Atlanta. He is the author of A Legacy of Heart and Mind: Emory Since 1836 (1999) and editor of Where Courageous Inquiry Leads (2006), and has published numerous essays.

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