3 - Testing the betrothal solution

Summary

The term ‘marital norm’ conveys the conviction that, within the Christian faith, marriage is the norm (but not necessarily the rule) for full sexual experience: the term ‘betrothal solution’ conveys the conviction that, if betrothal were retrieved, it would provide the comprehensive solution to the problem of prenuptial cohabitation. The aim of this chapter is to show that the betrothal solution fills a hiatus in Christian sexual ethics that is unlikely to be met in any other way. Before the work of retrieving betrothal is carried out in part 2, the utility of both norm and solution will be tested against some of the intense debates over sexuality in the churches over the last twenty-five years. A minor aim is to achieve familiarity with some of the sexuality reports in order to prepare for a fuller, contemporary theology of betrothal in chapters 7 and 8. Some of the sexuality reports are ambivalent about retaining marriage as the norm, and while some mention betrothal, none adopts the betrothal solution explicitly. The advantage of hindsight will be used to show that the marital norm is too important to be abandoned, and the betrothal solution is too useful to remain buried in obscurity. These two principles would have enabled clearer guidance to be produced, and they might have provided common theological ground between the different factions.