How central to the Christian understanding of the meaning of marriage is the sexual difference between men and women? It is this question that Christopher Roberts addresses in his Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage, and no one paying attention to the arguments about the blessing of same-sex unions in the Christian churches will want to ignore it. Roberts says he aims to raise the level of the theological conversation now dominated by questions of the justice of treating heterosexuals and homosexuals equally. Have most Christian thinkers thought sexual difference to be morally and theologically important? If so, does the contemporary discussion take account of their insights and arguments?
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Roberts writes with a shrewd eye for our contemporary predicament. â??We cannot imagine existing in our culture without the haven of an erotic partnership,â?? he writes, â??because our capacity to belong together in more chaste ways is so limited.â?? Here, he faults our failure to make possible â??a social life of lay celibacy.â?? He notes that it is not only advocates for same-sex unions who want to redefine marriage. â??Reclaiming the theological tradition about sexual difference would entail not only a chastening word to the revisionist theologians but also a thoroughgoing revolution for almost all Christians.â?? Would we not, for instance, have to put some daylight between the public social life of Christians and contemporary youth culture as celebrated by the media? With this book, Roberts has tried to raise the standard of theological argument about same-sex unions, and in this he succeeds admirably.
Guy Mansini reviewing Christopher Roberts’ Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage
