Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Divorce; a reference. Message-ID: Date: 23 Nov 90 09:56:32 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia Lines: 56 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu A while back there was a discussion on divorce in this newsgroup. There's a book that just came out this year which all of us who took part in that discussion and all of us who were interested in it could profit from reading. It is Divorce and Remarriage -- Four Christian Views J.C.Laney, W.Heth, T.Edgar, & L.Richards, ed. H.Wayne House InterVarsity Press, ISBN 0-8308-1283-0 IVP have a series of "XXX -- Four Christian Views" books. Whenever I see one of them, I buy it. So far I've seen War -- 4 Ch. Vws The Millenium -- 4 Ch. Vws Predestination -- 4 Ch. Vws I haven't read more than the introduction yet; I'm rather apprehensive because there is a serious risk that it may change my mind. That book on the millenium left me feeling totally bewildered, to be frank. The books really do not give any one of the views prominence. (I wish IVP would produce a "Fornication -- 4 Ch. Vws" book, but I seriously doubt that they'd find anyone willing to offer a scriptural defence for the position I would like to see explained.) To quote the back of the book Not everyone who appeals to Scripture agrees on how we should understand what it says about divorce and remarriage. In this book, four authors present their distinct perspectives. - Carl Laney argues that the Bible indicates that marriages are always intended to be permanent, that there is never a need for divorce, and that remarriage is never permissible after divorce. - William Heth contends that while there are legitimate biblical grounds for divorce, there are no legitimate grounds for remarriage after divorce. - Thomas Edgar defends the position that Scripture allows for divorce and remarriage in cases of adultery or desertion. [He claims that the position I presented in soc.religion. christian can only be obtained by "tormenting" the texts.] - Larry Richards holds that Scripture, while decrying divorce and the pain it causes, points to a God of grace who will not condemn those who divorce and remarry. [This is the bit I like:] Each essayist in this collection not only presents his own case but critiques the position of the others. Case studies at the end of each essay help to make theory face reality. The really important thing to me about the books in this series, even when they don't change my mind, is that they help you (or at any rate helped _me_) to acquire imaginative understanding that the people who hold the three (or four!) views differing from yours _want_ to hold a Christian view and agree that their view _ought_ to be rationally and scripturally based. With that kind of explanation before you (at any rate, before _me_) you can see how a *Christian* can honestly believe whatever-it-is. -- I am not now and never have been a member of Mensa. -- Ariadne.