Promise or Pretence?

If there is any area of social concern in which the church may properly be expected to have something to say, marriage, the family and sexual relationships surely hold pride of place. Two out of three of all marriages in England still take place in church. However, the church's teaching on marriage has become increasingly problematical. Its traditional doctrine that marriage is 'indissoluble' is plainly untrue in any literal sense: one out of every three marriages is in fact dissolved by process of law. That remarriage while the first partner is alive is inherently sinful is a position virtually impossible to reconcile with today's pastoral realities. The traditional ban on all sexual relationships outside marriage is respected by only a small number of church members and involves both them and the clergy in pretence rather than trust. And the position on homosexuality is an unhappy one. Anthony Harvey argues that if the church continues to teach rules and attitudes which have come to seem more like a relic of a former society than a serious contribution to the problems of family life today, there is a risk of such alienation of its teachers and ministers from the realities of contemporary life that its very credibility will be impaired. It is an urgent matter to consider how far the church's traditional teaching is a correct interpretation of the Bible and of Christian theological insights. This book is written in non-technical language and is addressed to all who are seeking to bring their Christian faith to bear on questions of marriage, family and sexuality.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Philosophy. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.