In What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, I argue, together with Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George, that marriage is a conjugal union of man and woman and that civil law should reflect this truth. Elsewhere we explain the importance of this fight and how and why it can be won. Here, I will defend the idea of rationally defending marriage at all. Others have disposed quite well of the more theoretical side of recent objections to this effort. I will address doubts about its value. Since these doubts raise questions about my work with Anderson and George, I should note that both have asked me to indicate their agreement with this defense, which I will lay out in a series of three articles. First, in today’s article, I hope to show Christian critics that Christianity itself relies on a natural-law account of marriage (and much else). In fact, some parts of Christian revelation would make no sense to people ignorant of what marriage really is; for revelation to be effective, a rational account of marriage must be possible. In this first article, then, I will take for granted basic Christian claims to show Christian critics that moral philosophy must have this much autonomy from theology: it can produce sound answers without pilfering its premises, or its plausibility, from revelation. But even beyond the Church, as I will show tomorrow, philosophy is crucial for lives well-lived—personally and communally. Though philosophy rarely converts immediately, and never converts en masse, it is indispensable for thriving individuals and societies. Finally, in a third article, I will answer those who accept these general points but see special problems for a natural-law defense of marriage and conclude by recalling why the fight for marriage is worth waging. thepublicdiscourse/2014/02/11978/
Posted on: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 01:24:26 +0000