Marriage — Just a Piece of Paper?

by Series: Religion, Marriage, and Family
Katherine Anderson (editor), Don S. Browning (editor), Brian Boyer (editor)

Marriage — Just a Piece of Paper? goes beyond conservative-liberal polarities in addressing timely marriage issues head-on. Skillfully weaving together scores of revealing interviews — with adults and children, with well-known professionals and ordinary citizens — the book poignantly captures the varied lives and voices, hopes and heartbreaks, and successes and failures that make up the reality of marriage in American society today.

Among the prominent figures who speak out in these pages are Joseph Lieberman (U.S. senator from Connecticut), William Julius Wilson (Harvard University), Judith Wallerstein (author of The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce), David Blankenhorn (Institute of American Values), Lisa Sowle Cahill (Boston College), John Witte (Emory University), Wade Horn (National Fatherhood Initiative), Linda Waite (coauthor of The Case for Marriage), Sam Brownback (U.S. senator from Kansas), William Galston (domestic policy advisor in the Clinton administration), Judith Stacey (Council on Contemporary Families), Frank Keating (governor of Oklahoma), and Judith Martin (better known as "Miss Manners").

Other perspectives come from judges, ministers, therapists, young African-American men who teach fatherhood skills, and children of divorced parents. Well-known and unknown persons alike address significant questions: Is marriage truly in decline? What are the personal and social costs of divorce? Is simply living together an answer? What about same-sex marriage? What can communities, government, the academy, and churches and synagogues do to support married life? Providing both a survey of the history of marriage and an honest assessment of the state of marital unions today, the book suggests ways that marriage can remain a viable institution into the twenty-first century.

Tied in with a major film documentary narrated by Cokie Roberts — to be broadcast on prime-time TV throughout the U.S. this coming Valentine's Day, Thursday, February 14 — this volume expands and deepens the discussion begun by the film. For anyone interested in life's most significant relationship, Marriage Just a Piece of Paper? will be a valuable resource indeed.

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