Beginning from Man and Woman

Bernard K. Wong

Description

Engaging with contemporary thoughts on love and the family, Bernard Wong argues that our notion of love has been deeply influenced by modern technological culture and political ideologies, leading to the detriment of familial relationships. Dr Wong demonstrates how Christian doctrines can be used to critique and resist these ideologies. Through a careful analysis of Christ’s love expressed in his life, death, and resurrection, the author presents a notion of Christ’s love bearing the characteristics of fraternal, incarnational, and unfolding love. These aspects of Christ’s love are pertinent to the relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and families and their neighbours. It is through practicing Christ’s love that Christians strengthen their familial relationships and bear witness to Christ in the world.

Informations

• Publié par: Langham Creative Projects
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783682713
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ranging widely through literature, both theological and sociological, about the state of marriage in our world, Bernard Wong will help his readers think about marriage and the household in ways other than those shaped by a late modern commitment to autonomy. Aiming to articulate a Christian vision of marriage and the household, he does not shy away from the hardest and most perplexing questions, and his constructive vision of the family as a school of love deserves attention and careful consideration.
Gilbert Meilaender, PhD
Senior Research Professor, Valparaiso University, Indiana, USA
Beginning from Man and Woman is an important contribution to the literature on Christian marriage and family. Bernard Wong tackles many vital issues in a direct, forthright, and engaging manner, offering invaluable critical and constructive insight. This is a must read for anyone who takes seriously the theological and moral significance of the family, especially as a witness to Christ’s love.
Brent Waters, PhD
Stead Professor of Christian Social Ethics,
Director of Stead Center for Ethics and Values,
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, U SA

Beginning from Man and Woman
Witnessing Christ’s Love in the Family
Bernard K. Wong

© 2017 by Bernard K. Wong
Published 2017 by Langham Monographs
An imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
ISBNs:
978-1-78368-270-6 Print
978-1-78368-272-0 Mobi
978-1-78368-271-3 ePub
978-1-78368-273-7 PDF
Bernard K. Wong has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78368-270-6
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and a scholar ’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth, and works referenced within this publication or guarantee its technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

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Contents

Cover


Chapter 1 Introduction


1.1 From the Beginning


1.2 Marriage in the Contemporary World


1.3 A Christian Response


1.4 Chapter Outline


Chapter 2 Uniformity between Man and Woman


2.1 Farley: Personhood as Self-Transcendence


2.2 Thatcher: Personhood as Love


2.3 Sexual Ethics of Farley: Coming Together of Minds


2.4 Sexual Ethics of Thatcher: Coming Together of Bodies


2.5 The Gendered Ethics of Farley and Thatcher


2.6 Theological Assessment


2.7 Conclusions


Chapter 3 Equal-Regard between Man and Woman


3.1 Critical Familism and Children


3.2 Critical Familism and the Democratization of Family


3.3 Male Problematic and Family Cohesion


3.4 Family as a Liberal Democracy


3.5 Theological Assessment


3.6 Conclusions


Chapter 4 Complementarity between Man and Woman


4.1 Gender Relationship in Complementarianism


4.2 Formulation of “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood”


4.3 Theological Assessment


4.4 Conclusions


Chapter 5 Love between Man and Woman


5.1 A Retrospective


5.2 Dualities of Human Existence as Framework of Gender Relationship


5.3 Christ’s Love as Moral Vision of Gender Relationship


5.4 The Moral Vision


5.5 Conclusions


Chapter 6 Witnessing Christ’s Love: The Ephesian Household Code


6.1 A Survey of Contemporary Interpretations


6.2. Interpreted through Christ’s Love


6.3 Conclusions


Bibliography


About Langham Partnership

Endnotes
Chapter 1
Introduction

From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female . (Mark 10:6)

1.1 From the Beginning
The creation of male and female marks the beginning of the human race. In the first creation narrative, simultaneous creation of male and female suggests that neither man nor woman alone can offer a complete portrayal of humanity. [1] Humanity must be known through both man and woman together. Hans Urs von Balthasar avers, “The human being, in the completed creation, is a ‘dual duality,’ . . . two poles of a single reality, two diverse presences of a single being, two entia in a single esse , one existence in two lives.” [2] It is not coincidental that on the first spacecraft that traveled beyond the solar system, scientists decided to attach a picture of a man and a woman standing side by side as a self-depiction of the human race in case the spacecraft encountered any extraterrestrial intelligence. [3] The dual existence of man and woman is not only essential in understanding humanity. As part of God’s creation, it is also pronounced “very good.” [4] The second creation narrative continues to describe this goodness: a man living “alone” is “not good” and the remedy is to find him a “fitting partner.” This partner must not be any other creature but the “woman,” who is fashioned from the very bones and flesh of the man. [5] Therefore, the goodness of a human person is predicated upon partnership with fellow human beings who share one’s “bones and flesh” yet are not merely duplicates of the self.
This notion of dual existence in Christian theology, however, does not imply that an individual man or woman is an incomplete being so that marriage is the only avenue to wholeness. As I will discuss later, the advent of Christ has released humanity from the imperative to procreate, and singleness has become an equal yet distinct vocation alongside marriage. [6] What the two creation narratives reveal is that the goodness of humanity, in Helmut Thielicke’s words, is founded upon “being in fellow-humanity.” The relationship between fellow human beings – the I-Thou relationship – is emphasized over and against all I-It relationships. [7] Sexual differentiation in humanity, argues Karl Barth, serves as the “great paradigm” for relationships between persons: “The fact that he [sic] was created man and woman will be the great paradigm of everything that is to take place between him and God, and also of everything that is to take place between he and his fellows.” [8] Man and woman were created simultaneously; both bear the imago Dei , are of equal dignity, and share “bones and flesh” with each other. Yet they are also different, occupying the opposite poles of a single reality so that the other is not merely a duplicate of the self, and otherness between persons becomes possible. It is this sameness and difference between man and woman that makes their relationship paradigmatic of all interpersonal relationships. In his discussions of human fellowship, Barth speaks of the paradigmatic man-woman relationship as the “first sphere of fellow-humanity,” from which the “second sphere of human fellowship” – between parents and children – arises. Finally, the relationships between one’s near and distant neighbors are respectively the “third sphere” and “fourth sphere” of human fellowship. [9] In other words, all human relationships originate from the paradigmatic man-woman relationship. To understand human relationality, we must begin with the relationship between man and woman.

1.2 Marriage in the Contemporary World
After asserting that the man-woman relationship is paradigmatic of all human relationships, Barth continues to argue that marriage is paradigmatic, or the telos , of the man-woman relationship, though not every man or woman must marry nor does marriage exhaust the encounter between them. Marriage is paradigmatic because it involves

the encounter of male and female in which the free, mutual, harmonious choice of love on the part of a particular man and woman leads to a responsibly undertaken life-union which is lasting, complete and exclusive. Whatever happens or does not happen in this sphere, as the encounter between man and woman, has some kind of reference to this form and possibility. [10]
Marriage as the paradigm or the telos of human relationality is also expressed in Scripture. The relationship between the first man and woman in Genesis, though primarily in