• John Calvin on Marriage and Family Life

    Author(s):
    John Witte, Jr. (see profile)
    Date:
    2009
    Subject(s):
    Theology, Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564, Law, Political science, Jurisprudence, Families, Protestantism
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    sex, Marriage, Family Life, John Calvin, Political theory, Family
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/0tvm-xh57
    Abstract:
    This chapter explains how the sixteenth-century Protestant reformer, John Calvin, transformed the Western theology and law of sex, marriage, and family life. Understanding marriage as a divine covenant with distinct and discernible goods and goals, Calvin gave new grounds to old rules prohibiting illicit sexual unions, polygamy, adultery, prostitution, concubinage, pre-marital sex, and non- marital cohabitation. But Calvin also set out new teachings on the proper treatment of religious differences between spouses, sexual dysfunction, post- menopausal sex, and the right to separate and divorce for adultery or family desertion. These new grounds for old teachings and new teachings from old grounds were applied not only in formal theological tracts but also in the many statutes and cases that Calvin shaped for sixteenth-century Geneva. This chapter, introducing a multi-volume series on sex, marriage and family life in early modern Geneva, reveals the debt Western theology, jurisprudence, and political theory owes to Calvin.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
    Pub. Date:
    2009
    Book Title:
    The Calvin Handbook
    Author/Editor:
    Herman J. Selderhuis
    Page Range:
    455 - 465
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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