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

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. Unusually easy to read this book is deeply Christian deeply human and deeply loving. With scrupulous fairness and no hint of dogmatism Reitan takes us back to the basic question What does Christian love for our gay and lesbian neighbors demand? The Triumph of Love is itself a triumph of love both in its handling of the catalogue of misconceptions about lesbian and gay people in conservative Christianity and in the alternatives it offers. --Adrian Thatcher University of Exeter Eric Reitans The Triumph of Love is itself a triumph--of clarity rigor and most of all compassion. Read it if youre looking for a book that will generate more light than heat in the debate over Christianity and same-sex marriage; indeed read it if youre less interested in debate than in a thoughtful conversation that takes seriously the concerns on various sides. Deftly weaving personal anecdote with careful argument Reitans book is insightful accessible and thought-provoking. --John Corvino Wayne State University Eric Reitan is Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of Is God a Delusion? A Reply to Religions Cultured Despisers (2009) which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2009. He is also the co-author (with John Kronen) of Gods Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism (2011).