The Triumph of Love: Same-Sex Marriage and the Christian Love Ethic - Hardcover

by Eric Reitan (Author)

Recent years have witnessed an astonishing cultural and legal shift when it comes to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Many Christians see these changes as a defeat for Christian values, often painting Christian opponents as sell-outs to secular culture. But can there be a genuinely Christian case for same-sex marriage? This book makes that case. While sensitive to scriptural issues, it focuses on a question that cannot be answered by Scripture alone: What does love for our gay and lesbian neighbors demand? This question calls us to pair theological, philosophical, and scriptural reflection with something else: attention to gay and lesbian lives. We must attend to the psychological research and, more importantly, to the stories our gay and lesbian neighbors tell us about themselves and their experience. Love does not permit us to plug our ears with Bible verses. While this book argues that Christian love calls us to make same-sex marriage available, the deeper conclusion is that Christian values prevail when we wrestle with these questions in a spirit of love: love for those with whom we disagree, and love for those most affected by the decisions we reach.

Author Biography

Eric Reitan is Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of Is God a Delusion? A Reply to Religion's Cultured Despisers (2009), which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2009. He is also the co-author (with John Kronen) of God's Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism (2011).