Re-Inventing Marriage

Marriage has evolved over the centuries; it was not always as in Victoria’s day and is evolving still. This book asks whether we can shape our biological urges toward the highest ideals of the human race. The anger that fuels today’s debate so often is grounded in ignorance. This book provides the overview needed to enable us to raise our sights and take some first steps toward a better future for all.

(This is) a book that should be in the library of anyone who’s doing serious thinking about sexual ethics and the church’s blessing of
relationships of all kinds. Webber states his purpose as providing ‘a voice in the middle of [the] conversation’ about the purpose of
Christian marriage, ‘saying first, ‘Wait a minute; let’s look at how
we got here in the first place,’ and second, ‘Now that we’ve got that
clear, how about re-building this way?’

His project is at once radical and eminently practical, raising long over-due questions about the difference between Christian marriage and state licensing, the relationship between marriage and procreation, the sacramental nature of marriage, and the possibility of reviving church-sponsored betrothal as a kind of novitiate for the modern Christian marriage…

Although Webber is clearly addressing heterosexual marriage, his
theology of relationship presents worthwhile guidance for the Church’s thinking about what it means to create a sacramental honoring of same-sex unions as well, by cutting through the historical misconceptions and cherished illusions about marriage that form so much of the polemic surrounding this issue. And everyone, conservative or liberal, who’s concerned about ‘family values’ can learn much from Webber about the real source of those values — not in human customs and structures but in the love of the living God.

— Jan Nunley

Re-Inventing Marriage is important reading for those involved in the pre-marital counseling process. But this book touches on more than living together and weddings and how spouses deal with sleepless nights at the cribside and bad breakfasts. Without doubt another gift of this book is in its vision of a Christian community in which its members, as sharers in the ‘royal priesthood of all believers,’ are called to be truly and deeply accountable to one another, in prayer and witness to the enduring love of God.

— Robert Hirschfeld

The intensity of Re-Inventing Marriage removes it from the category of easy-to-read books in how to achieve wedded bliss. Rather, we learn thoroughly about the love of God in Christ, love of our God-given humanity in each other, and love accepted and given through triumph over any adversity. Here is an especially thoughtful book to expand the knowledge and enrich the marriage of the reader.

— Carol and Ciro Bommarito