Just Marriage

It is not difficult nowadays to find books decrying divorce and defending the Christian doctrine that marriage is a permanent union. Such a teaching by its very nature raises the problem of how to respond when marriages become destructive. The response generally given by church officials is that if grave danger is present, spouses may separate. Some denominations even allow for divorce and remarriage. This response, however, is not particularly helpful for spouses not in grave danger but nonetheless in destructive marriages, nor does it tell us anything about how to avoid destructive marriages in the first place. This book argues that just conflict in marriage can both prevent marriages from becoming destructive and be a path toward reconciliation for those who find themselves already ensconced within a destructive marriage. The criteria for just conflict are adopted and translated from the just war tradition. Though conflict in war and in marriage is quite distinct, in both domains conflict is just if ordered to unity and reconciliation and unjust when it devolves into mere antagonism, whether cold or hot. Just conflict, then, is a path of reconciliation for Christian spouses whose faith rests in the Christ who makes all things new.