Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T15:48:19.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

29 - Male and female

from PART III - SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPACT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Adrian Thatcher ,
David Hillard  and
Pirjo Markkola
Edited by
Hugh McLeod
Hugh McLeod
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Get access

Summary

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

The secular understanding of sexuality and intimate human relationships changed markedly in the twentieth century, and this impacted heavily on the institutions of marriage and family. The churches’ engagement with these changes was diffuse, divisive and slow. They responded differently to the arrival of reliable contraception and legal abortion, and to the demands both for easy extrication from failed marriages, and for remarriage or ‘further marriage’. The expectation that couples should refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage has been generally abandoned by couples themselves, and is under severe strain even among conservative Christians. Since the average age of first marriage (in England and Wales in 2000) was thirty-one for men and twenty-eight for women it is not difficult to see why. At the end of the twentieth century, over 40 per cent of marriages in those countries were predicted to end in divorce, and 39 per cent of children were born outside of marriage. The figures are similar in Canada and the USA. In some countries married people were already becoming a minority of the adult population.

Contraception

An enlightening window into the mind of Anglicanism over the century regarding marriage and family is the stream of resolutions emanating from successive Lambeth Conferences (of bishops of churches throughout the Anglican communion). It is probably fair to say that most Protestant churches were in sympathy with the resolutions on marriage and family. In 1920 the Lambeth Conference issued ‘an emphatic warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of conception … and against the evils with which the extension of such use threatens the race’.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 534 - 568
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, Sonia E.,‘Women’s participation in the Brazilian ‘‘People’s church’’: a critical appraisal’, Feminist studies 16 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Anglican Church of Australia, Faithfulness in fellowship: reflections on homosexuality and the church. Papers from the doctrine panel of the Anglican Church of Australia (Melbourne: John Garratt Publishing, 2001)
Bailey, Derrick Sherwin, Homosexuality and the Western Christian tradition (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1955)Google Scholar
Barton, Stephen C. (ed), The family in theological perspective (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000)Google Scholar
Bates, Stephen, A church at war: Anglicans and homosexuality (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004)Google Scholar
Book of Common Prayer, The, On-line at www.eskimo.com/∽lhowell/bcp1662/
Bradshaw, Timothy (ed.), The way forward? Christian voices on homosexuality and the church (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997, 2nd edn 2003)Google Scholar
Brown, Callum G., The death of Christian Britain: understanding secularisation 1800–2000 (London and New York: Routledge, 2001)Google Scholar
Browning, Don S., Marriage and modernization: how globalization threatens marriage and what to do about it (Grand Rapids and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2003)Google Scholar
Browning, S.,Miller-McLemore, Bonnie J., Couture, Pamela D., Lyon, K. Brynolf and Franklin, Robert M., From culture wars to common ground: religion and the American family debate (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997)Google Scholar
Butler, Sara,‘The ordination of women: a new obstacle to the recognition of Anglican orders’, Anglican theological review 78 (1996)Google Scholar
Camp, Richard L.,‘From passive subordination to complementary partnership: the papal conception of a woman’s place in church and society since 1878’, Catholic historical review 76 (1990)Google Scholar
Catechism of the Catholic church (Dublin: Veritas, 1994)
,Catholic church, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the bishops of the Catholic church on the pastoral care of homosexual persons (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1986)
Chaves, Mark,‘Ordaining women: the diffusion of an organizational innovation’, American journal of sociology 101 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Church of England, General Synod Board for Social Responsibility, Homosexual relationships: a contribution to discussion (London: CIO Publishing, 1979)
Coleman, Peter, Christian attitudes to homosexuality (London: SPCK, 1980)Google Scholar
Common Worship Marriage Service (2000). On-line at www.cofe.anglican.org/ commonworship/marriage/
Crawford, Janet,‘The community of women and men in the church: where are we now?’, Ecumenical review 40 (1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Janet,‘Women and ecclesiology. Two ecumenical streams?’, Ecumenical review 53 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennis, Norman, and Erdos, George, Families without fatherhood (London: Institute of Economic Affairs Health and Welfare Unit, 1993)Google Scholar
Dunn, James D. G.,‘The household rules in the New Testament’, in Barton, (ed.), The Family
Edsall, Nicholas C., Toward Stonewall: homosexuality and society in the modern Western world (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003)Google Scholar
Fletcher, Brian H.,‘Anglicanism and national identity in Australia since 1962’, Journal of religious history 25 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaudium et spes [Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World] (1965). On-line at http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents
,General Assembly Special Committee on Human Sexuality, Presbyterian Church (USA), Keeping body and soul together: sexuality, spirituality and social justice (Tampa, FL: Jan, 1991)
Germond, Paul, and Gruchy, Steve (eds.), Aliens in the household of God: homosexuality and Christian faith in South Africa (Cape Town: David Philip, 1997)Google Scholar
Gill, Sean (ed.), The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement: campaigning for justice, truth and love (London: Cassell, 1998)Google Scholar
Glasgow, Joanne,‘What’s a nice lesbian like you doing in the church of Torquemada? Radclyffe Hall and other Catholic converts’, in Jay, Karla and Joanne, Joanne (eds.), Lesbian texts and contexts: radical revisions (New York: New York University Press, 1990)Google Scholar
Halsey, A. H.,‘Foreword’, in Dennis, and Erdos, (eds.), Families without fatherhood
Hamilton, Michael S.,‘Women, public ministry, and American fundamentalism, 1920–1950’, Religion and American culture. A journal of interpretation 3 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastings, Adrian, Christian marriage in Africa (London: SPCK, 1973)Google Scholar
Heron, Alastair (ed.), Towards a Quaker view of sex: an essay by a group of Friends (London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1963)Google Scholar
Hilliard, David,‘UnEnglish and unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and homosexuality’, Victorian studies 25 (1982)Google ScholarPubMed
Hogan, Margaret Monahan, Finality and marriage, Marquette studies in philosophy (Marquette: Marquette University Press, 1993)Google Scholar
Huber, Mary Taylor, and Lutkehaus, Nancy C. (eds.), Gendered missions: women and men in missionary discourse and practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isichei, Elizabeth, A history of Christianity in Africa: from antiquity to the present (Lawrenceville, NJ: Africa World Press Inc., 1995)Google Scholar
Jenkins, Philip, Pedophiles and priests: anatomy of a contemporary crisis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)Google Scholar
Jin, Yong Ting,‘On being church. Asian women’s voices and visions’, Ecumenical review 53 (2001)Google Scholar
John Paul, Pope II,Familiaris consortio (1981). On-line at http://www.vatican.va/holy_ father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/
John Paul, Pope II,Letter to families (1994). On-line at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/ letters/documents/
Jordan, Mark D., The silence of Sodom: homosexuality in modern Catholicism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000)Google Scholar
Korinek, Valerie J.,‘No women need apply: the ordination of women in the United church, 1918–65’, Canadian historical review 74 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindley, Susan Hill, You have stept out of your place: a history of women and religion in America (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996)Google Scholar
,Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Group on Marriage and Relationship Support, Moving forward together (London: COI Communications, 2002)
MacCurtain, Margaret,‘Late in the field: Catholic Sisters in twentieth-century Ireland and the new religious history’, Journal of women’s history 7 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mader, Donald,‘Exclusion, toleration, acceptance, integration: the experience of Dutch Reformed churches with homosexuality and homosexuals in the church’, Journal of homosexuality 25:4 (1993)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malmgreen, Gail (ed.), Religion in the lives of English women, 1760–1930 (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1986)Google Scholar
Markkola, Pirjo (ed.), Gender and vocation: women, religion and social change in the Nordic countries, 1830–1940 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2000)Google Scholar
Moore, Gareth, A question of truth: Christianity and homosexuality (London: Continuum, 2003)Google Scholar
Moorhouse, Geoffrey, Against all reason (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969)Google Scholar
Muir, Elizabeth Gillan, and Whiteley, Marilyn Färdig (eds.), Changing roles of women within the Christian churches in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995)Google Scholar
Offen, Karen, European feminisms 1700–1950: a political history (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000)Google Scholar
One Plus One, Marriage and Partnership Research. On-line at http://www.oneplusone. org.uk
Oraison, Marc (1952), Vie chrétienne et problèmes de la sexualité, new edn (Paris: P. Lethielleux–Fayard, 1972)Google Scholar
Paul, Pope VI,Humanae vitae (1968). On-line at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/ paul_vi/encyclicals/documents
Pittenger, Norman, Time for consent: a Christian’s approach to homosexuality (London: SCM, 1967, 3rd edn 1976)Google Scholar
Pius, Pope XI,Casti connubii [Chaste marriage] (1930). On-line at http://www.vatican.va/ holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-connubii_ en.html
Post, Stephen G., More lasting unions: Christianity, the family, and society (Grand Rapids and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2000)Google Scholar
Prelinger, Catherine M. (ed.), Episcopal women: gender, spirituality, and commitment in an American mainline denomination (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar
Robbins, Paul,‘Marriage nullity in the Catholic church: not every wedding produces a marriage’, in Thatcher, (ed.), Celebrating Christian marriage
Robert, Dana L.,‘From missions to mission to beyond missions: the historiography of American Protestant foreign mission since World War II’, International bulletin of missionary research 18 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruether, Rosemary Radford, and Keller, Rosemary Skinner, Women and religion in America. Vol. III: 1900–1968 (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986)Google Scholar
Salonen, Kari,Kääriäinen, Kimmo and Niemelä, Kati, The church at the turn of the millennium: the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland from 1996 to 1999. Publication no. 51. The Research Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. http://www.evl.fi/kkh/ktk/english/p51.htm
Schneider, Laurel C.,‘Homosexuality, queer theory, and Christian theology’, Religious studies review 26 (2000)Google Scholar
Scroggs, Robin, The New Testament and homosexuality: contextual background for contemporary debate (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983)Google Scholar
Sharma, Arvind (ed.), Women in world religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987)Google Scholar
Siker, Jeffrey S. (ed.), Homosexuality in the church: both sides of the debate (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994)Google Scholar
,Southern Baptist Convention, The Baptist faith and message (2000). On-line at http://www.sbc.net/bfm/default.asp
Stuckey, Johanna, Feminist spirituality: an introduction to feminist theology in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and feminist goddess worship (Toronto: Centre for Feminist Research, York University, 1998)Google Scholar
Tentler, Leslie Woodcock,‘On the margins: the state of American Catholic history’, American quarterly 45 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thatcher, Adrian, Living together and Christian ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thatcher, Adrian, Marriage after modernity (New York: New York University Press; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999)Google Scholar
Thatcher, Adrian (ed.), Celebrating Christian marriage (Edinburgh and New York: T&T Clark, 2001)Google Scholar
Vasey, Michael, Strangers and friends: a new exploration of homosexuality and the Bible (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995)Google Scholar
Vuola, Elina, Limits of liberation; praxis as method in Latin American Liberation Theology and feminist theology (Helsinki: The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1997)Google Scholar
Ward, Kevin,‘Same-sex relations in Africa and the debate on homosexuality in east African Anglicanism’, Anglican theological review 83 (2002)Google Scholar
Weeks, Jeffrey, Coming out: homosexual politics in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present, revd edn (London: Quartet, 1990)Google Scholar
Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe, The divorce culture (New York: Vintage, 1998)Google Scholar
Witte, John Jr, From sacrament to contract: marriage, religion, and law in the Western tradition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997)Google Scholar
Zion, William Basil, Eros and transformation: sexuality and marriage – an Eastern Orthodox perspective (Lanham, MD and London: University Presses of America, 1992)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×