Themelios 50, 3 (December 2025)

I’m late to this, but the most-recent Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Preparing Well: Encouragements for Aspiring Pastors

In every generation and in every place, there is a need to identify, equip, and encourage new leaders for Christ’s church. Where are these future pastors and teachers now? What sort of preparation and encouragement do they require to move from aspiration to faithful action? This column reflects on the need for leadership development in the church and offers encouragement for aspiring ministers.

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

The Three R’s

Andrew T. Walker & Kristen Waggoner

The Unchained Word: A Public Theology of Free Speech

This essay develops a distinctly Christian theology of free speech in response to mounting threats of censorship across Western societies. We argue that freedom of speech is not merely a political concession of liberal democracies but arises from humanity’s nature as rational agents made in the image of God, created to be seekers and speakers of truth. Speech is both a constitutive feature of human selfhood and an instrumental good through which individuals and communities pursue moral goods and the common good. After examining the biblical purposes of speech, the limits of civil government’s authority, and the moral logic of human rights, we contend that a Christian account of free speech requires a dual affirmation: positively, that individuals have a duty to speak truthfully; and negatively, that governments bear a heavy burden of proof before restricting expression. Free speech thus serves as a shield against government overreach, a safeguard of human fallibility, and a vital condition for truth-seeking in a pluralistic world. While not absolute, free speech must enjoy a presumption of liberty if societies are to order themselves toward truth and resist the perennial temptation of tyranny.

John Goldingay

Leviticus 8–10 as Narrative

Leviticus 8–10 is the one substantial narrative in Leviticus. The paper considers six contemporary approaches to the interpretation of narrative – setting, point of view, plot, theme, characters, and language – in order to see how they illumine the interpretation of these chapters. It thus further aims to see how their application to these chapters might suggest that these contemporary methods may be useful in biblical interpretation, not least in connection with narratives that might not seem to engage modern Western readers.

Jared August & Jonathan Lough

Achan and Annihilation? Hyperbolic Language and the Justice of Yahweh in Joshua 7

The conquest language of Joshua is often taken as hyperbolic, particularly in chapters 6–10. This essay attempts to apply a hyperbolic reading to Joshua 7 and the Achan account, proposing that such a reading deals best with the larger context as well as the textual details. This interpretation suggests that by making himself an enemy of Yahweh, Achan suffered the same fate as the pagan Canaanite nations: Achan, as the enemy combatant, was executed, his livestock killed, his possessions destroyed, and his family dispossessed from their inheritance in the land.

Joanne J. Jung & Eric B. Oldenburg

The Right-Side-Up Kingdom: A Lexical, Contextual, and Theological Study of Acts 17:6 and Its Implications

The kingdom of God is sometimes referred to as an upside-down kingdom. This descriptor originates from translating ἀναστατόω in Acts 17:6 as, “to turn the world upside down.” A lexical study will show that such a translation is misguided. A contextual study will show that using the phrase “upside down” to describe the kingdom is similarly problematic. Finally, a theological case will be made for prioritizing “right-side-up” over “upside-down” language for the kingdom of God. When God empowers success in our efforts to reconcile, redeem, and transform that which is upside-down, the kingdom of God is actualized in the world, and “right-side-up” is more appropriate in describing such realities.

Jonathan D. Worthington

The Pastors and Teachers in Ephesians 4:11

Paul’s reference to “the pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 is regularly discussed and often misunderstood. In conversation with some key voices in the debate, I argue this double-sided thesis: (1) Paul’s grammar portrays pastors and teachers as two recognizably distinct groups – i.e., in general, pastors are not teachers and teachers are not pastors – and (2) they nevertheless must serve the saints in closer connection together than the other groups of leaders mentioned. On this sound foundation, I offer constructive possibilities with reference to the connected Greco-Roman systems of home and education for who within Pauline circles the pastors likely were, who the teachers likely were, and how they were likely meant to work together.

Adam Ch’ng

Transposing Genre: Reading Hebrews 12:4–13 as Proverbial Wisdom

By citing Proverbs 3:11–12 (LXX) in Hebrews 12:5–6, the author of Hebrews transposes the wisdom genre of the proverb into his broader exposition (12:4–13). This article integrates and applies the theories of John Frow and Tremper Longman III, and argues that the strong literary connections between the proverb and Hebrews 12:4–13 indicate the incorporation of the wisdom genre. Accordingly, Hebrews 12:4–13 should be read as proverbial wisdom, and its characterisation of human suffering as divine discipline should be understood not as a universal theodicy but as a circumstantial truth.

Bradley Gray

From Logizomai to Luther: The Great Exchange and the Development of the Imputed Righteousness

Martin Luther’s theology of imputation, which is often understood through the paradigm of “the great exchange,” is a formative albeit misunderstood tenet of Reformation doctrine. Even though Luther never explicitly deployed the phrase, nevertheless, the gospel is conveyed in the language of a two-way transaction, wherein Christ’s righteousness is imputed to sinners as their sins are imputed to him. The pastoral necessity to preach the good news of imputation is best understood against the backdrop of historical and contemporary challenges to the doctrine itself. Imputation, therefore, remains vital not only for doctrinal clarity but for the believer’s assurance of salvation.

Cameron Schweitzer

Does Edwards’s Exegetical Typology “Always and Only Point to Spiritual Things Related to Christ?” A Response to Drew Hunter from the Evidence of the Blank Bible

This essay responds to Drew Hunter’s 2019 article, “Hebrews and the Typology of Jonathan Edwards,” challenging his thesis that Jonathan Edwards’s exegetical typology “always and only points to spiritual things related to Christ.” Through an analysis of Edwards’s Blank Bible, the essay identifies 143 notations where Edwards employs typology to uncover antitypes that are not strictly Christological. The evidence presented suggests that Edwards’s exegetical typology is broader and more complex than the Christological framework in which Hunter situated it. This article argues that, instead, Edwards’s exegetical reflections in the Blank Bible highlight that typology was, for him, a spiritual, historical, teleological, and eschatological hermeneutic for interpreting God’s work in redemptive history.

Adrian P. Rosen

The Christocentric and Christotelic Nature of Johannine Pneumatology

Several years ago, a highly regarded Pentecostal ecumenist suggested that the Paraclete’s work in the “world” supports a more inclusive soteriology. This article responds to this proposed theological trajectory within Johannine pneumatology, seeking to contribute to broader conversations regarding christological exclusivism and pneumatological inclusivism. An exegetical survey of the Spirit’s work in John’s Gospel – including the Spirit’s activity in Jesus’s earthly ministry, within the believer, and in the world – demonstrates that Johannine pneumatology remains decidedly christocentric and christotelic from start to finish. When one gives careful attention to the text, it becomes clear that John’s view of the Spirit’s work is decidedly and firmly anchored in his christological particularism.

Brian A. DeVries

Missio Trinitatis: Theological Reflections on the Origin, Plan, and Purpose of God’s Mission

Trinitarian theology provides the basis for understanding missio Dei. The divine sendings of the Son and the Spirit explain the origin of God’s mission, while the divine council with the pactum salutis helps us comprehend the whole plan of God’s redemptive mission. God’s external work of mission, accomplished and applied across the history of redemption, highlights the eternal purpose of God’s mission and helps us align our participation in it. Using this time-tested Trinitarian language helps us avoid divergent definitions of this important concept, while clarifying ambiguities and guarding against common misuses. It also helps us better understand the church’s evangelistic witness in relation to the Triune God and his mission.

Nicholas J. Weyrens

Toward a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology

Internet-connected digital technologies are having deleterious effects on children. In a world shaped by the digital, Christian parents have a moral duty to have an intentional philosophy of technology – a set of principles and practices – that will help their children flourish in Christ. In this essay, I propose four principles for a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology to help parents understand how and why technologies shape children. By establishing the idea that we are what we attend to, I will connect the deformative effects of internet-based digital technologies with the spiritual deforming language of idols in Scripture. This highlights the importance for parents to protect their children’s attention and cultivate their children’s ability to attend, most notably to God, by integrating proposed practices into their own contextualized Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology.

Jon Horne

The Scandal of Marriage: Towards a Theology of Sexual Differentiation

This essay argues that monogamous sexually-differentiated marriage (MSDM) is uniquely revealed through Christ’s relationship with the church in Ephesians 5:30–32. Through a trinitarian reading, marriage is understood as the Father’s initiative, sexually differentiated because it follows the form of Christ (groom) and church (bride), and perfected by the Spirit. The bride-groom metaphor is not merely illustrative but constitutive of marriage’s form. Therefore, because Jesus is biologically male, marriage cannot be relativized to accommodate same-sex unions. This makes marriage a scandal not unlike that of Christ’s particularity (1 Cor 1:23), which resists absorption into non-Christian notions of the divine.

Book Reviews

Daniel Lilley on Marriage

Daniel Lilley, Marriage and the Stable Society: The Continued Importance of Marriage (London: Civitas, 2024).

This report from Civitas has been available for a while, though I’m only just getting round to posting about it.

The summary blurb is below, and the report itself is available as a pdf here.

‘Marriage has undergone a remarkable decline in the UK. The marriage rate has fallen two thirds in 50 years; and in 2021, for the first time, more than half of babies were born to unmarried parents. We also see a growing “marriage gap”, in which those who are wealthier and more highly educated are much more likely to be married.

‘This decline in marriage has not corresponded with much increase in singleness; instead, we have seen a huge rise in cohabitation: that is, couples living together without getting married. The cultural consensus seems to be that cohabitation is just as good as marriage, and that getting married is little more than a pointless piece of outdated bureaucracy.

‘Marriage and the Stable Society argues that, on the contrary, marriage remains highly relevant in today’s Britain. The data show clearly that couples who are married are much more likely to stay together long term, and that this is greatly beneficial to their children as well as to couples’ own happiness and wellbeing. Far from being regressive, marriage has the potential to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in society, who are currently less likely to marry.

‘The report also examines the reasons that people today, especially those who are less well off, are less likely to marry than they were in the past. As well as changes in cultural attitudes, bureaucracy and cost represent significant barriers, with even the most basic wedding costing over £500 in administrative costs, and most costing many times more than this. Marriage and the Stable Society shows how this burden could be reduced so that more people are able to access the benefits of being married.’

Evangelical Review of Theology 45, 1 (February 2021)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Editor’s Introduction

The Young, the Not-So-Young and the Very Old

Efraim Tendero

As I Hand Off the Baton

Wesley Hill

When Christians Disagree

In this essay, a widely respected author, known for both his defence of traditional marriage and his irenic treatment of those who view the issue differently, probes the problem of sharp divisions amongst professing Christians and challenges some of the prevailing approaches to these divisions.

Frank Hinkelmann

The European Evangelical Alliance: An Historical Sketch

In the April 2020 ERT, Frank Hinkelmann, Austrian church historian and president of the European Evangelical Alliance, told the fascinating tale of how the EEA, now part of the World Evangelical Alliance, was originally founded as a counter-movement to it. In this sequel, Hinkelmann continues the story by describing the EEA’s evolution and significance up to the present.

Benjamin Isola Akano

Promoting Quality Worship Experience in Contemporary Nigeria

Many churches around the world struggle to recognize diversity in ways that overcome racial and ethnic barriers and unify the body of Christ. This article draws on concepts from communication studies to develop ways to intentionally improve intercultural relationships, with illustrations from Nigeria where the presence of hundreds of distinct ethnic groups makes virtually every congregation intercultural.

Francis Jr. S. Samdao

A Baptist Quadrilateral? A Filipino Outsider’s Perspective on Baptist Identity

Baptists are a particularly diverse stream of Christians, partly because their theological convictions empower individual decision making. This article discusses colourfully how the diversity of Baptists is reflected in the Philippines today. It seeks to articulate the core features of the Baptist identity and encourages Baptists both to enrich and to be open to learning from other parts of the body of Christ rather than isolating themselves.

Wayne Detzler

J.B. Phillips: From Paraphrase to Translation

Eighty years ago, there were few modern Bible translations. In the 1940s, J. B. Phillips initiated a modern translation of the New Testament. But his work gets little notice today. This article tells the story of Phillips and his project, offering important insights on the value and limitations of attempts to modernize the Bible message.

Mary Douglas

God and Humanity Brought Together: The Incarnation as Gospel

The Incarnation is celebrated at Christmas but do we really grasp its full import? This essay draws on the fourth-century church father Athanasius – one of the greatest defenders of the orthodox Christian conviction that Jesus Christ was truly God and truly man – to support its claim that evangelicals today impoverish their gospel witness by highlighting Jesus’ death and resurrection and overlooking the essential contribution of the Incarnation to our redemption.

Benjamin Marx

Clothing and Exchange of Garments in the Bible, as a Picture of God’s Dealings with His People

This article investigates the imagery of clothing and exchange of garments through the entire Christian canon (in nine books from Genesis to Revelation) to identify the redemptive analogies drawn by the biblical writers. From the beginning, God takes the initiative to clothe his people and thus restore our dignity, worth and relationship to him.

Jim Reiher

Did the Gospel of Matthew Come First? An Historian’s View

This essay takes us on an enlightening trip through numerous early church fathers to explain why the author believes Matthew was the first Gospel and why this issue is important. It provides a valuable introduction to and critical examination of what we know about the origin of the Gospels.

Book Reviews

Mission Catalyst 1 (2021) on Love and Singleness

The current issue of Mission Catalyst, published by BMS World Mission, is now available. This issue is devoted to ‘Love and Singleness’.

‘This issue tackles romantic partnerships in Christian culture: What single people in church really think, how demographics are affecting attitudes to love and marriage, and several perspectives on romantic love, divorce and friendship. There’s also an interview with John Mark Comer.’

Mission Catalyst is available as a free subscription, or can be downloaded as a pdf here.

The Beautiful Story

Following on the heels of the Church of England’s ‘Living in Love and Faith’ (see here) is a 32-minute video from the Church of England Evangelical Council – ‘The Beautiful Story’.

According to the blurb:

‘Christians believe that the gospel is good news for all people and for all time. But since the narratives of our contemporary culture don’t always echo a biblical worldview, the church needs to be clear about how the gospel challenges and transforms human experience – including in our relationships and sexuality. The Beautiful Story is a 30 minute film that explains how a biblical vision for human sexuality is good for individuals, the church and society as a whole. It is intended to galvanise and support discussion in local churches around sexuality and relationships and to provide the case for what many call a traditional Christian viewpoint.’

Update: The CEEC has provided (here) some background on the video, along with a message to clergy and lay leaders about using it in parishes, with a promise of a shortened version of the film to come in the near future.

Living in Love and Faith

Several years in the making – and not without controversy – the Church of England has today released a set of resources on Living in Love and Faith, billed as ‘Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage’.

The main website is here, which has more information about the project, and from where the Living in Love and Faith Learning Hub can be accessed (including access to the book, podcasts, a course with films and discussion questions, and other resources) in return for an email address.

Update: Andrew Goddard (a consultant on the Co-Ordinating Group of Living in Love and Faith) provides a very helpful introduction and overview here: ‘LLF for Dummies: 10 FAQs about the Church of England’s new teaching and learning resources on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.’

Further Update: A pdf of the full book can be downloaded here.

The King of Romance

This is a lightly-updated version of a piece I wrote back in 2014.

If any of the stories about Saint Valentine are to be believed, he would barely recognise how we celebrate the day that bears his name. As one meme puts it: ‘I was beaten with clubs, beheaded, buried under the cover of darkness, disinterred by my followers, and you commemorate my martyrdom by sending each other chocolates?’

So there I was yesterday, faced with racks of cards, a sea of red and pink hues. What to choose this year? Nah, too schmaltzy. Too gaudy. Too tacky. Way too tacky. I need something which communicates the perfect combination of desire, romance, fun, sensitivity, with a slight mischievous edge, while not taking itself too seriously. Is that too much to ask of a card? I’ve been married for over 26 years, so why doesn’t this get any easier?

But as I glance furtively around at my fellow browsers, to see who else is buying a card less than 12 hours before the deadline, I wonder whether we’ve all been sucked into a giant vortex of mindless corporate consumption – so many possibilities, but still trapped into spending £2.79 to say ‘I love you’. It’s easy to become cynical. In all this, my mind switches to those who might feel the lack of a Significant Other – whether through death, divorce, relationship breakdown, force of circumstances, or choice. I’m probably thinking about this way too much, right?

Yet, the God of creation and redemption is big enough to embrace all of it – all the yearnings and aspirations of the heart, met and unmet. Whatever the changing fortunes of the relationship between marriage and love through history, mutual attraction and displays of affection are a gift from God’s hand, not merely evolutionary glue to help keep us together. What God has done for the world in Christ simultaneously makes sense of the couple’s delight in each other, but also offers grace to the celibate and comfort to the lonely.

That’s why Christians understand that such issues are best framed through the gospel – which puts God rather than us at the centre of the universe, which tells us that love involves the cost of sacrifice, seen supremely in Jesus, which calls us to see all our relationships as places where discipleship is worked out in everyday life, and which reminds us that the union between Christ and his people remains ultimate for all of us.

Centre for Public Christianity (June 2016)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted part of an audio interview with Marilynne Robinson related to her most-recent book, The Givenness of Things, ‘on the beauty and tragedy involved in being human’, and some video interviews with Ryan Anderson on marriage equality and what he calls ‘marriage reality’.

Vine Journal 2 (December 2015)

Vine Journal is published three times a year in both digital and print form by GoThereFor.com, the digital ideas and resources division of Matthias Media. According to the blurb, ‘GoThereFor.com exists to explain and promote a Bible-based, Reformed-evangelical vision of Christian life and ministry, and to equip Christians everywhere with resources to be disciple-making disciples every day’.

More information about Vine Journal is available here. Volume 1 can be downloaded as a pdf here, and volume 2 (containing the below essays) can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Editorials

Tony Payne

Cross or Glory

Mike Allen

Agreeing to Never Disagree

Articles

Mark Thompson

The Theology of the Cross for Today

“A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.” With these typically startling and paradoxical words, Martin Luther summarized the difference between two diametrically opposed approaches to knowing and serving God. His insight is as relevant today as it was at the time of the Reformation.

Phillip Colgan

The Cross and Christian Ministry in the New Testament

The cross challenges many of our most cherished ideas and idols. But, as Phil Colgan argues, perhaps the most profound challenge of the cross to our ministries is its call to live an uncomfortable, insecure, cross-shaped life.

Mike Allen

Review Essay: One for Many

Ed Loane

From King’s College to Kingsford: Charles Simeon’s Enduring Influence on Australian University Ministry

Most of us are aware of Charles Simeon of Cambridge as a name in the pantheon of evangelical heroes. But as Ed Loane explains in this fascinating essay, Simeon’s influence on university ministries around the world was more profound than many people realize.

Sandy Grant

Defining and Defending Marriage

In a climate of controversy, slogans and emotive appeals, where clear thinking about the nature of marriage is hard to find, this essay by Sandy Grant is a breath of fresh air. In it he not only explores the most frequently unasked question in the same-sex marriage debate (“what is marriage?”), but offers helpful advice for how Christians can put their point of view intelligently and graciously.

Danny Rurlander

Clear and Good
1 Corinthians 11 is a perfect storm of problems for modern Bible readers. It seems hard to understand, and its message (as best as we can read it) grates with our cultural sensibilities. However, as Danny Rurlander argues in this careful and insightful reading of the passage, God’s word in 1 Corinthians is like the rest of Scripture: clear in its message, and thoroughly good in its effects.

David and Heather Jackman on Marriage

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one by David Jackman and Heather Jackman:

David Jackman and Heather Jackman, ‘A Gift of God: Biblical Reflections on Marriage’, Cambridge Papers 24, 3 (September 2015).

Here is the summary:

‘The broad and pervasive “trend away from marriage” has far-reaching implications for society as a whole, as well as for Christians who come under pressure to conform to cultural standards. In contrast to the short-term and low-commitment relationships that have fast become the norm, the Bible holds out a positive vision for marriage, based on God’s covenant relationship with his people, and offers us the hope of communicating an attractive model of marriage to those who adhere to very different values.’

Centre for Public Christianity (March 2015)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted a video interview with Craig Keener on ‘the credibility of the miracles recounted in the gospels – and those that happen around the world today’, and an audio interview with Wesley Hill on ‘same-sex attraction, singleness and marriage, and spiritual friendship’.

9Marks Journal (Winter 2015) on Complementarianism

The latest issue of the 9Marks Journal, available here as a pdf, is devoted to the topic of ‘Complementarianism and the Local Church’.

In the Editorial, Jonathan Leeman writes:

‘Complementarianism teaches that God created men and women equal in worth and dignity and yet he assigned them different roles in the church and home. Its counterpoint, egalitarianism, argues that you can only say men and women are equal in worth if you let both assume equal leadership in church or home...

‘Complementarians imagine a different kind of home and church than egalitarians. They are just as acquainted with authority fallen, but they can better imagine authority redeemed. They know that being in authority is no better than being under authority, because both are assignments given by God for the sake of serving him and his praise. They know that redeemed authority creates, enlivens, and empowers, and it’s a shade short of silly to argue over who gets to empower and who gets to be empowered in God’s kingdom. In fact, if there is an advantage to be had, it doesn’t belong to the person called to lay down his life, it belongs to the person who receives life because the first person lays his down.’

Centre for Public Christianity (December 2013)

There’s the usual collection of helpful items from the Centre for Public Christianity this month, including a two-part video interview with Sherif Girgis, co-author of What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, on ‘marriage, body-self dualism and contemporary belief in the West’. There’s also a video interview with Michael Goheen on ‘the importance of knowing what stories we are living by and how this is crucial for knowing who we are’, and another video interview with him in which he discusses how ‘the West has been shaped by Christian faith and what interest the Christian story has for the postmodern age’.

The City 6, 1 (Summer 2013)

The latest issue of The City, from Houston Baptist University, is available online here.

This edition includes several essays around the theme of ‘Marriage and Religious Liberty’, including Ryan T. Anderson on ‘Twelve Theses on Redefining Marriage’, Susan McWilliams reviewing the significant book, What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, by Sherif Girgis et al., Fred Sanders on ‘Wendell Berry and the Poetry of Marriage’, Paul D. Miller on sex and modesty (‘Between Burqua and Mini Skirt’), and Andrew Walker on why neutrality is not an option (‘In Defense of Christian Partisanship’). There is also conversation with Eric Metaxas on Bonhoeffer and religious liberty, along with some other pieces and book reviews.

The Church of England on Men and Women in Marriage

Faith and Order Commission of the Church of England, Men and Women in Marriage: A Document from the Faith and Order Commission Published with the Agreement of the House of Bishops of the Church of England and Approved for Study (London: Church House Publishing, 2013).

Earlier this week, the Faith and Order Commission of the Church of England published a short report – Men and Women in Marriage – setting out the church’s view of ‘the long-established meaning of marriage’.

The report begins with a reminder that in 2005, the Bishops stated the Church of England’s position in these words:

‘Marriage is a creation ordinance, a gift of God in creation and a means of his grace. Marriage, defined as a faithful, committed, permanent and legally sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman, is central to the stability and health of human society. It continues to provide the best context for the raising of children.’

What follows in the report ‘is intended to enlarge on that summary, drawing on what has been said by the Church of England historically and more recently, and especially on how the sexual differentiation of men and women is a gift of God’.

The full report is available as a pdf here.

Jubilee Centre on the Family and Sexual Ethics

Sally Bertlin (ed.), The Family and Sexual Ethics: Christian Foundations and Public Values (2013).

The Jubilee Centre makes available online a 23-page booklet on The Family and Sexual Ethics: Christian Foundations and Public Values. This flows out of an international conference held in Hong Kong in May 2011, organised by the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Jubilee Centre. The report is a collection of ten short (under two pages long) papers from the conference.

According to the blurb:

‘In recent years there has been a growing international interest and concern about the pressures of the environment and the consequences of this for the long-term survival of the planet. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the breakdown of the family and its consequences for the ecology of the planet. Family breakdown is being driven partly by divorce and partly by today’s sexual ethics, which then impact on rates of family formation and disintegration.’

The report is available as a pdf here.

Andrew Sullivan and Douglas Wilson Debate on Same-Sex Marriage

The video of a debate on same-sex marriage (‘Is Civil Marriage for Gay Couples Good for Society?’) between Andrew Sullivan and Douglas Wilson, held on 27 February 2013 in Moscow, Idaho, has now been posted online here.

The first I saw of this was last week when Peter Leithart commented on the debate here and then here.

Leithart writes:

‘I came away from a debate on gay marriage between Douglas Wilson and Andrew Sullivan deeply impressed with the difficulties that Christians have, and will continue to have, defending a biblical view of marriage to the American public. It will take nothing short of a cultural revolution for biblical arguments to be heard, much less to become persuasive.’

The debate was moderated by Peter Hitchens, author of The Rage Against God, who reflects on the debate here.

At one point he says:

‘My own view, which I have recently come to after changing my mind,  is that the demand for same-sex marriage is not itself an attack on the nature of marriage, but a *consequence* of a general change in the institution, which was actually achieved by pressure from a post-Christian heterosexual society and (as Mr Sullivan rightly says ) by the contraceptive pill.’

Roger Scruton and Phillip Blond on Marriage

One of the pieces I read as preparation for my own short piece on same-sex marriage last week was by Roger Scruton and Phillip Blond – ‘Marriage Equality or the Destruction of Difference?’, first published on 4 February 2013.

I don’t finally agree with all they say, but I found many of their arguments fairly compelling, particularly around what they call ‘competing visions’ of marriage – ‘conjugal marriage versus mere partnership’.

‘Put simply, there are two competing ideas of marriage at play in the current debate. The first is traditional and conjugal and extends beyond the individuals who marry to the children they hope to create and the society they wish to shape. The second is more privative and is to do with a relationship abstracted from the wider concern that marriage originally was designed to speak to. Some call this pure partnership or mere cohabitation.

‘The latter view is what marriage is becoming: a dissolvable contract between two individuals who partner purely for the sake of the partnership itself. It has little or nothing to do with children, general education or social stability.’

They provide a potted history of marriage and its secular unmaking, before reflecting on the ever-increasing conception of ‘equality’ in our time:

‘Equality no longer means – as it ought to mean – the equal opportunity to participate in the benefits of society. Instead, it means the removal of all forms of social difference, all the ways in which people have tried to define and maintain institutions and paths through life that require something more than mere humanity of their members... Marriage has grown around the idea of sexual difference and all that sexual difference means. To make this feature accidental rather than essential is to change marriage beyond recognition.’

Difference, they say, matters:

‘Same sex couples want marriage because they want the social endorsement that it signifies; but by admitting gay marriage we deprive marriage of its social meaning. It ceases to be what it has been hitherto – namely, a union of the different sexes and a blessing conferred by the living on the unborn. The pressure for gay marriage is therefore in a certain measure self-defeating: in seeking equality with something unlike yourself, the thing that you join to is no longer what you joined.

‘What is needed here is equity that respects difference not equality that destroys it...’

There is a fuller ResPublica paper by Scruton and Blond available here.

Ethics in Brief Volume 18, Nos. 1 and 2 (2012)

The first two issues from Volume 18 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Tom Miller, ‘The Folly of Attributional Personhood’, Ethics in Brief 18, 1 (2012)

Following the Enlightenment and Empiricist movements, neuroscience has become increasingly harnessed by secular philosophers and ethicists in an attempt to determine scientifically who or what a person may be. However, such an approach is problematic given that the history of cognitive neuroscience is littered with patients who, after sustaining brain damage, lose focal cognitive abilities without apparently diminishing their value and worth as a person. This article explores the historical foundation of this materialistic approach to personhood and its scientific, philosophical and ethical consequences.

Jonathan Chaplin, ‘A Time to Marry – Twice’, Ethics in Brief 18, 2 (2012)

This article argues for a separation between the two stages of the solemnization of marriage: the civil and the religious. While this would be a good thing in itself, the possibility that same-sex marriage could soon be legalized adds greater urgency to the question and requires the church to reflect more urgently and boldly than it has done so far, both on the relation between church and government with respect to marriage and on its own distinctive theology of marriage.