Marriage, Family and Relationships: Biblical, Doctrinal And Contemporary Perspectives

Family life has undergone revolutionary changes in Western society in the last sixty years, posing both theological and ethical challenges for the contemporary church. This book 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. But the church also 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, A. T. B. McGowan, Nicholas Moore, Onesimus Ngundu, Oliver O'Donovan, Ian Paul, Andrew Sloane, Katy Smith, Elaine Storkey and Sarah Whittle.

Thomas A. Noble is Research Professor of Theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, and Senior Research Fellow at the Nazarene Theological College, Manchester. Co-editor of the New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic.

Sarah Whittle is lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Nazarene Theological College, Manchester.