The debate on gay marriage is full of conjecture and assumption on all sides. In preparing for a recent panel discussion on gay marriage, I looked for resources that could help me cut through the various facets of marriage and its history. I found those resources in The Meaning of Marriage.
This book is a collection of essays that take different approaches to marriage and its recent development in the United States. As a complex social institution, all too often discussion on marriage is over-simplified depending on the area of expertise (or for that matter, the agenda) of the author. This book overcomes those problems by presenting a wide range of thinkers from a variety of fields to present their views on marriage. It takes approaches from the law, philosophy, sociology, history, economics, and religion and puts them into a concise volume.
The essays themselves are easy to access and digestible, even for readers not fluent in the fields the author is coming from. The authors are well-known and respected in their fields of study. They provide fresh intellectual ammunition that seems lacking in the gay marriage debate by answering and providing a framework to discuss what marriage has meant, what it means, and what it should mean.
Many of the essays shed light on the philosophical underpinnings of marriage that make it possible to overcome the various rhetorical traps gay marriage advocates use to deconstruct the traditional view of marriage. The legal analyses bring to the fore some of the disturbing and absurd trends in marriage law that has virtually made marriage into nothing more than any relationship between two people who share property. For instance, recent court decisions have stated that sex is not required nor an essential component of marriage. Lastly, the sociological discussions take apart the recent studies that gay marriage advocates like to use to defend their viewpoints even though those studies are fatally flawed.
Article comments
1 - jstephenclark
Although the author of this review attempts to claim some scholarly authority by disingenuously describing himself as "an academic professional for the University of Illinois," he is nothing more than a computer programmer with undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy. Indeed, he describes himself on a university webpage as "an [sic] research programmer at the University of Illinois and an independent security consultant." In other words, he has no expertise whatsoever in this subject--unless he's been studying gay Martians, gay subatomic particles, or gay computer operating systems--nor is he a scholar. As his own website makes clear, he is simply a right-wing activist. And the book he reviews is just a collection of standard right-wing propaganda by the usual anti-gay suspects.
2 - John Bambenek
The title for a non-faculty staff person at the University of Illinois *is* Academic Professional. That's just what we're called there.
You're opinion that only people you recognize with people that have approved positions should be the only ones allowed to speak is noted.
3 - Jacob
That was a good laugh. Neeext.
4 - rodian and daivin
our comment about your book or article is we cannot really understand your article because it is not really stated what is marriage.............
5 - coffee drinker
Saw the author of this book on Morning Joe this morning. Very fundie and anti-gay in nature. He seems to have some time-honored principles for permanence in marriage but have to take it with a grain of salt. It is what it is.