Heresay some might say...
Submitted by Bach on 2002-11-27 09:27:44, Wednesday
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But, says Adrian Thatcher, professor of applied theology at the University of Exeter, things are not as they seem. "Christendom is in a state of collective amnesia about how it used to deal with marriage," he says. Until the Reformation, marriage began at the time of betrothal, when couples would live and sleep together. This was called "the spousals"; it was legally binding. The nuptials - ie the public wedding ceremony - would happen later. Into the mid-1700s it was quite normal and acceptable for brides to be pregnant at the altar. I'm not sure that this changes how we look at the issue of comitted relationships, but I think it reminds us once again that the Church these days has gone into a mode of conforming to social conventions of the society around it. Many of our so-called "Christian" notions of sexual and intimate relationships are simply not Biblical, but rather social. Christ's teaching is about love, not civil status. When we look at the institution of marriage in the Old Testament, I believe that it does not look very much like that institution today. Peace of Christ, Bach [Anonymizer] [NetHUSH] [Megaproxy] [subDIMENSION Anonymizit] [Linkbeat] [freeProxy] [@nonymouse] [BlackCode] |
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