What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to defend the marital family as vital for individual and societal wellbeing across diverse contexts.

May 25, 2026Open Access

Introduction

Key Points

The aim is to defend the marital family as vital for individual and societal wellbeing across diverse contexts.
Combines Christian theology, Enlightenment liberal philosophy, and modern social science perspectives.
Critiques contemporary movements seeking to redefine or abolish traditional marriage.
Promotes the idea of marital family as essential for stability and responsible social relationships.
Argues that stable marital families lead to private flourishing and social stability.
Rejects the reduction of marriage to solely a sexual contract.
Calls for responsible sex and parenting as keys to societal health.

Abstract

This is the Introduction to a volume that combines Christian theology, Enlightenment liberal philosophy, and modern social science to defend the marital family as an essential institution for adults and children, straights and gays alike. This volume presents the marital family as an integrated sphere with natural, social, economic, communicative, contractual, and spiritual dimensions. I reject modern efforts to abolish the legal category of marriage or to reduce it to a transient and malleable sexual contract. While celebrating the sexual liberty of consensual adults, I call for stable marital families and responsible sex and parentage as the surest and safest path to private flourishing and social stability for all.

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