Thomas A. Noble & Sarah K. Whittle 
Marriage, Family and Relationships [EPUB ebook] 
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. Mc Gowan, Nicholas Moore, Onesimus Ngundu, Oliver O’Donovan, Ian Paul, Andrew Sloane, Katy Smith, Elaine Storkey and Sarah Whittle.




Contents

Introduction


Thomas A. Noble, Sarah K. Whittle and Philip S. Johnston


Part 1: Biblical perspectives


1. The patricentric vision of family in the book of Deuteronomy


Daniel Block

2. Ordered relationships in Leviticus


Katy Smith

3. ‘Who is this coming up from the wilderness?’ Identity and interpretation in the Song of Songs


Rosalind Clarke

4. The sexuality of God incarnate


Andy Angel

5. Developing a biblical theology of singleness


Barry Danylak

6. ‘Let even those who have wives be as though they had none’: 1 Corinthians 7:29 and the challenge of the ‘apocalyptic’ Paul


Sarah K. Whittle

7. Are we sexed in heaven? Bodily form, sex identity and the resurrection


Ian Paul

8. Deferring to Dad’s discipline: family life in Hebrews 12


Nicholas Moore

9. Evidence of non-heterosexual inclinations in first-century Judaism


David Instone-Brewer


Part 2: Doctrinal and contemporary perspectives

10. Marriage in early, Christian and African perspectives


Onesimus Ngundu

11. Human sexuality and Christian anthropology


A. T. B. Mc Gowan

12. ‘One man and one woman’: the Christian doctrine of marriage


Oliver O’Donovan

13. Covenant partnerships as a third calling?: A dialogue with Robert Song’s
Covenant and Calling: Towards A Theology of Same-Sex Relationships

Andrew Goddard

14. ‘Male and female he created them’? Theological reflections on gender, biology and identity


Andrew Sloane

15. Shadows across gender relations


Elaine Storkey

16. On not handling snakes: late-modern cultural assumptions about sexuality


Stephen Holmes