Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva
Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2005
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Publisher's Description
You would not expect this from his dour reputation, but John Calvin transformed the Western understanding of sex, marriage, and family life. In this fascinating, even sensational, volume John Witte and Robert Kingdon treat comprehensively the new theology and law of domestic life that Calvin and his fellow reformers established in sixteenth-century Geneva. Bringing to light and life hundreds of newly discovered cases and theological texts, Witte and Kingdon trace the subtle historical forms and norms of sex, marriage, and family life that still shape us today.
Endorsements (3)
“A splendid accomplishment. John Witte and Robert Kingdon move gracefully from theological tracts and legal treatises to court records and correspondence, stopping to take note of revealing incidents from John Calvin's own life. The result sheds new light on the history of married life.”
“Give a new generation a monograph on Calvinist views of sex, marriage, and family and you may catch their minds for a day. But give them a multivolume edition of the same subjects in superb translations and you start up new schools of scholarship. With this first volume on courtship, engagement, and marriage John Witte and Robert Kingdon are teaching a new generation how to fish in Geneva.”
“Witte and Kingdon provide a wonderful range of diverse primary source documents that will make fascinating reading for students and scholars alike.”
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