Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 04:2 (Fall 2022)
Article: The Future Of Christian Marriage
Author: David Talcott

Eikon 4.2 (Fall 2022) p. 143

The Future Of Christian Marriage

REVIEWED BY

David Talcott

Dr. David Talcott is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Chair of the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at The King’s College (NYC). He serves as elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA), Short Hills, NJ. His book Plato is forthcoming with P&R Publishing.

Mark Regnerus. The Future of Christian Marriage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Where is marriage headed for Christians? That is the question Roman Catholic sociologist Mark Regnerus tackles in his new book. He writes “This is a book about how modern Christians around the world look for a mate within a religious faith that esteems marriage but a world that increasingly yawns at it” (2). To answer this, he and his team interviewed 190 young Christians in seven different countries around the world. Each chapter presents stories from these interviews, which adds life to his data-driven arguments. His central contention is that the meaning of marriage has not changed, but our interest in marriage has. People generally know what marriage is, but their other beliefs and values mean that marriage increasingly takes a back seat when it comes to concrete life decisions.

Eikon 4.2 (Fall 2022) p. 144

His introductory chapter documents the decline of marriage around the globe. Though many of us feel this intuitively, the hard data is pretty striking. In 1980 in the Netherlands, for example, 80 percent of women in their late 20s were married or had been married. Currently? Only 20 percent. Not every nation’s decline has been that dramatic, but in every nation the movement has been in the downward direction. The question becomes, how are Christians navigating this new environment?

In the second chapter Regnerus argues that Christians’ beliefs about the nature of marriage have not changed, but our beliefs about the place of marriage within a well-lived life have changed dramatically. Based on his interviews, he concludes that young Christians around the world still correctly understand what marriage is: a lifelong union of man and woman for the sake of mutual love and children. However, marriage used to be part of the “foundation” of an adult life, as the launchpad for joint successes. Now, however, it is increasingly viewed as a “capstone,” something you enter into at the end, once all the pieces are set in place. On the latter view, marriage is a status achievement only available to people who have already been successful in life, primarily through economic stability (“a career”) and personal growth (“finding oneself” through ...