Living Together and Christian Ethics

The first positive, in-depth study of cohabitation outside marriage from a mainstream Christian theological perspective.

Living Together and Christian Ethics is the first positive, in-depth study of cohabitation outside marriage from a mainstream Christian theological perspective. The book retrieves the traditions of betrothal from the Bible and church history, and shows how these can transform Christian attitudes to living together before marriage. A crucial distinction is made between prenuptial cohabitation where marriage is intended, and nonnuptial cohabitation where it is avoided. Since betrothal was widely understood as a real beginning of marriage, the book argues for a complete pastoral, theological and liturgical renewal that reclaims the riches of forgotten Christian marital traditions and redeploys them in conveying the good news of the faith to women and men who are not yet married. The book takes issue with theologians who marginalize marriage, and suggests that the recognition of marital values can act as a helpful bridge between Christian teaching and people who are not formally married.

Part I. Living Together as a Theological Problem: 1. A guide to living together; 2. Living together: a preliminary theological analysis; 3. Testing the betrothal solution; Part II. An Exercise in Retrieval - Bringing Back Betrothal: 4. The bible and betrothal; 5. Evidence from liturgy and law; 6. Whatever happened to betrothal?; Part III. Extending the Marital Norm: 7. Betrothal, consent and consummation; 8. The sacramental beginning of marriage; 9. Extending the marital norm; Appendix. A rite of betrothal before marriage.

Living Together and Christian Ethics is the first positive, in-depth study of cohabitation outside marriage from a mainstream Christian theological perspective. The book retrieves the traditions of betrothal from the Bible and church history, and shows how these can transform Christian attitudes to living together before marriage.

Adrian Thatcher read Theology at Regentís Park College, Oxford, and was awarded the D.Phil. in 1973 for his work on The Ontology of Paul Tillich (also his first book, 1978). He was a Baptist Minister (1966–74) and is now an Anglican. He has taught at the College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, since 1977, becoming Head of the Department of Theology and Philosophy in 1984, and Professor of Applied Theology in 1995. His books include Truly a Person, Truly God (1990), Liberating Sex: A Christian Sexual Theology (1993), People of Passion: What the Churches Teach about Sex (with Elizabeth Stuart (Mowbray, 1997), and Marriage after Modernity: Christian Marriage in Postmodern Times (1999). In 2000 he directed The First International Marriage Conference at the College of St Mark and St. John and has edited and contributed to the volume of conference proceedings, Celebrating Christian Marriage: New Agendas, New Opportunities ( 2001). He also writes in the Theology of Education, and recently edited Spirituality and the Curriculum (1999). He was Alan Richardson Memorial Fellow in the University of Durham, England, in 1997, and is a regular speaker at Church conferences on marriage and questions of sexual ethics. He has written articles and reviews in many journals including the British Journal of Religious Education, Christian Century, Crucible, Feed the Minds, Theology and Sexuality, the Scottish Journal of Theology, Studies in Christian Ethics, and The Witness. He is a member of several learned societies including the Societies for the Study of Theology, and of Christian Ethics.