Advances in the biological sciences (some say they are not advances) and the triumph of postmodern conceptions of liberty and equality are seemingly in the process of upending Western conceptions of marriage, sex, family and children. Under challenge, too, is the proper role of the State in relation to each of them. Many, on both sides of these debates, say that these matters have stood largely unchanged for some millennia. The traditional family – a faithful father and mother bringing forth in wedlock children who are related to both of them – appears to be being abandoned as the norm or even a desirable object in the West. But is the story so linear and straightforward? Have Western conceptions of these issues remained relatively stable since the beginning of recorded history, only to be subverted in the twentieth century of the Christian era? Or does the story really consist of byways, about-turns, dead ends and reversals? These are the questions John Witte Jr of Emory University School of Law seeks to answer in this book.

As Witte explains, the proper interaction between the State, religious communities and the family has been central to debates about the ordering of society for three millennia in the West. The power and prominence of each has waxed and waned over that time. Churches, theologians, philosophers and politicians have had much to say about how the family ought to be structured, the rights and obligations within it, and how (or whether) it ought to relate to both the State and the Church. Debates – often vociferous and uncivil – on these issues continue into our present day. Witte helps us grapple with them to try to find ways forward for the flourishing of our societies, whether readers agree with him or not.

Witte has been writing about the history, law and theology of the family, State and Church for over three decades. His contribution to this area of discourse is enormous. Some 27 monographs, articles or essay collections to which he has put his name, alone or in company, are listed in the bibliography. This book represents a culmination, if not a summation, of his contribution to these debates. It is, as he says, his ‘final word’ on the subject, before he embarks on different research.Footnote ¹

The book is divisible into two major parts. The first part takes the reader through the treatment of marriage by the law and by society at various points in Western history. The second addresses five major contemporary issues concerning the family, informed by that history. In this way, the book sets marriage and the family in their proper historical, legal and religious context, so as to allow modern arguments on these issues to draw on, or reject, the approaches taken in the past.

Following the introduction, the first three chapters give a useful and digestible account of the theological treatment of marriage, divorce, children and the family by each of Chrysostom, Augustine, Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, Luther and Calvin. A close reading of these chapters shows how Christian conceptions of marriage emerged, but distinguished themselves, from the secular Roman approach and the Hebraic traditions in the Old Testament. The differences between the views of each of these Christian religious figures are drawn out, demonstrating the accretion of a large body of theology and law relating to the family through to the Middle Ages. In common with many societal institutions in Europe during the Reformation, family and marriage were given a major re-think. The Reformers prized conjugal love and the centrality of the family to society, condemning clerical and monastic celibacy and the pre-eminence of clerics over the laity. The following three chapters cover the treatment of marriage in Protestant household manuals, by Hugo Grotius and John Selden, and then during the Enlightenment. The last chapter of the first part demonstrates a surprisingly robust defence of the traditional family – and the State's obligation to support it – by the first liberals.

With that historical perspective established, Witte goes on in the second part to defend aspects of marriage against modern assaults: (i) why the family model centred on a married couple still deserves societal respect and State support; (ii) why the United States generally, and American Evangelicals in particular, should support children's rights; (iii) why polygamy ought not to follow on from same-sex marriage; and (iv) why the State still has a role in regulating the family and marriage, such that we should not abandon it to the purely private sphere. During debates in the West on same-sex marriage, it has been postulated – by both bishops and secularists – that the churches should withdraw from the secular marriage business, leaving it to the State alone to regulate and solemnise marriages. Or, taking it a step further, that the State should withdraw from the marriage business altogether, leaving it to free, capable adults to regulate their personal and intimate relationships as they see fit, using the law of contract to do so.Footnote ²

The book addresses, with significant respect and fairness, the arguments which have been made against the continuation of the traditional family and the State's continued privileging and support of it. Such arguments were advanced by Plato, but have now been taken up by, for example, Martha Fineman. She has argued that the traditional family should be deconstructed and that the State should preference the mother–child bond, providing welfare in place of the traditional father role. Witte meets these arguments by contending that, while they may seem attractive to college-educated adults who are well resourced (and among whom the marriage rate in the US reaches 90 per cent), they fail to protect the vulnerable. They would give the State too much power in regulating personal and intimate relationships, after the West has spent the better part of half a century trying to get the State ‘out of the bedroom’. Single mothers and their children generally lack the financial or institutional capacity to avail themselves of private legal protections. The State should and does have a role in protecting the vulnerable.

Witte's central point is that stable marriages which nurture children are essential for individual and social flourishing. Marriage is good for the spouses, their children, their wider family and society at large. This, he shows, is a truth recognised in pagan and Christian societies, and still holds true in the post-Christian West. Given the benefits of marriage to individuals and society, it merits protection and promotion by the State.

The book is to be commended for its lucid, simple and humane style. It eschews the complex writing of some modern academics, where the reader is left to thrash through a thicket of jargon to seek to understand the author's meaning. In contrast, this book can be understood – and speedily read – by a lay reader who has little prior knowledge of the topic. Footnotes do not abound. It is not hard to understand where the author stands on an issue. Witte will sometimes start all the sentences in a paragraph with ‘I support…’, followed by a paragraph containing only ‘I reject…’ sentences. Such clarity would be welcomed in other academic works. Relatedly, in dealing briefly with abortion, he writes movingly about his own mother's experience of an issue which has been politically fracturing. He speaks similarly about his own experience with adoption.

This monograph represents a considered synthesis of theology, law, social theory and human rights. Witte provides a robust explanation of his position, meeting some arguments of modern critics of the legal conditions in which the family operates, both internally and as it relates to the State and churches. These debates continue in legislatures, synods, universities, the press and wider society. Witte's book merits reading by all participants in these debates, whether politicians, clerics, academics or indeed any person of good will.