Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective

Coeditor, Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005) (with Eliza Ellison)
Description

Covenant marriages requiring premarital counseling and tighter strictures on divorce have recently emerged in some American states. At the same time, the doctrine of covenant has reemerged in religious circles as a common way to map the spiritual dimensions of marriage. Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective brings together eminent scholars from Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic religious traditions as well as experts on American covenant marriage. The introduction carries out an unprecedented comparison of contract and covenant in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim understandings of marriage. The rest of the book elucidates various facets of marriage from the perspectives of both jurisprudence and religion, producing an enlightening integrated picture of the legal and spiritual dimensions of marriage.
Table of Contents

  • Introduction John Witte, Jr., and Joel A. Nichols
  1. Jewish Marriage: Nature, Covenant, and Contract – David Novak
  2. The Covenant-Contract Dialectic in Jewish Marriage and Divorce Law – Michael J. Broyde
  3. Marriage As Covenant in the Catholic Tradition – Michael G. Lawler
  4. Covenant Marriage: reflections from an Eastern Orthodox Perspective – Stanley Samuel Harakas
  5. Marriage As Covenant in Early Protestant Thought: Its Development and Implications – James Turner Johnson
  6. Covenantal Marriage: Protestant Views and Contemporary Life – Max L. Stackhouse
  7. The Nature of the Islamic Marriage: Sacramental, Covenantal, or Contractual? – Azizah Y. al-Hibri
  8. Marriage, Love, and Sexuality in Islam: An Overview of Genres and Themes – Richard C. Martin
  9. The Modern American Covenant Marriage Movement; Its Origins and Its Future – Katherine Shaw Spaht
  10. What Does Covenant Mean for Relationships? – Margaret F. Brinig and Steven L. Nock
  11. The American “Covenant Marriage” in the Conflict of Laws – Peter Hay
Reviews

"A really important book on what is arguably America's most significant problem. A strong society depends on loving and lasting marriages to provide for many of the needs of both its adults and its children, but we Americans have not yet figured out how to foster such marriages. This book explores the possibility of invoking in American law the concept of marriage as covenant embedded in all three Western religions and now an option in some states, and it does so from varying legal and religious perspectives and with thoughtful arguments pro and con. No book could be more timely or important for our personal lives and our society as a whole."
-- Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, University of Judaism, Los Angeles