Here are some of my recommendations for books on
marriage, sex, and family for those who would spend serious time thinking
deeply about what marriage is, how we came to the point of its overthrow, and
what the future might hold. Most available in e-editions.
Sherif
Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George. What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense. Encounter Books, 2012.
Being a human affair, marriage is a natural entity
before it’s a religious matter. The authors make a purely rational,
non-religious argument for natural marriage grounded in reason and history as a
comprehensive union of will and body ordered to procreation and the broad
sharing of life, involving permanent and exclusive commitment.
Pope
Paul VI, On Human Life: Humanae Vitae.
Ignatius Press, 2014
Ignatius Press presents Fr. Marc A. Caligari’s 1998
translation of Paul VI’s controverted encyclical with Mary Eberstadt’s fine
essay “The Vindication of Humanae Vitae” serving as a forward. James Hitchcock
provides “A Historical Afterword” and former atheist turned
Catholic-blogger-speaker-apologist Jennifer Fulwiler provides a postscript
entitled “We’re Finally Ready for Humanae Vitae”. The additional material makes
the volume most useful for discussion and study.
Mary
Eberstadt, Adam and Eve After the Pill:
Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution. Ignatius Press, 2013.
Eberstadt, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public
Policy Center, provides us with a collection of essays worked into a coherent
book dealing with the dynamics of technological and social change on sexuality
and their effects on men, women, children, and young adults.
•
Anthony Esolen, Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity. Saint Benedict
Press, 2014.
Many people assume same-sex marriage affects no one
outside of those who choose to enter such legal unions. Esolen, professor of
literature and translator of Dante, shows how same-sex marriage will change
society and culture on a deep level by its effects on things such as
friendship, freedom, the relationship between the sexes, and children.
•
Robert R. Reilly, Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior is
Changing Everything. Ignatius Press, 2014.
Against those who would assert that acceptance of the
gay agenda is no big deal, Reilly demonstrates not only that the acceptance of
homosexuality is changing human society at a fundamental level but also through
copious quotes that radical change to the fabric of human existence has been
gay activists’ desired endgame.
Ryan
T. Anderson, Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.
Regnery, 2015.
Anderson, a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage
Foundation, has done more to defend natural marriage in the public realm than
any other figure. After Obergefell, he provides us with a road map for living
with—and resisting—its consequences.
Enjoy!
Comments
Post a Comment