Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva. Vol. 1: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage (review)

With individuals and institutions across the United States—and beyond— grappling with contentious and loaded questions about the roles and definitions of marriage, this study by John Witte, Jr., and Robert M. Kingdon of some of the origins of modern notions of sex, marriage, and family in Christian-influenced societies is welcome indeed. It will appeal not only to scholars and teachers of the law and theology of early modern Europe but to anyone interested in working through the thorny debates that vex us today. A contribution to a broad series entitled Religion, Marriage, and Family that aims to identify and explore sources not only in Christianity but also in Judaism and Islam, this book is the first of a three-part set that will examine Geneva during the period in which John Calvin played a decisive role in this city, that is, from the 1540s through the 1560s. This volume considers the early stages of family formation—courtship, engagement, and marriage—and ends its field of focus with the wedding day. The second volume in the set will take up where this one leaves off, exploring what it meant to live as a Christian couple or family in Geneva and, more specifically, the nurture and education of children. The third and final volume will investigate issues that arose within the context of marriage and family, including arguments, abuse, adultery, desertion, spousal illness, death, inheritance, and remarriage.

Witte and Kingdon look to John Calvin's own writings for insight on these topics. If only as a collection of primary sources, their book would be tremendously valuable; it includes a wide range of texts by Calvin, including new translations into English of many little-known documents, some of which were previously untranslated. Texts include Calvin's systemic writings (such as his 1536 Institution of the Christian Religion); his sermons, lectures, and commentaries on the Bible; his letters and consilia (formal responses to specific questions); his catechisms and other teaching materials; his polemical writings; statutes he drafted (including the 1546 Geneva Marriage Ordinance); and cases that came before the Genevan Consistory, a unique body created by Calvin in 1541 that Witte and Kingdon say acted "as a hearings court, as a compulsory counseling service, and as an educational institution" (14). The volume is much more than a collection of sources, however, for Witte and Kingdon analyze these documents clearly and persuasively, providing an authoritative and comprehensive study of Calvin's ideas on courtship, engagement, and marriage.

The authors begin with a discussion of family law in Geneva prior to the Reformation and then review key differences between canon law and Calvin's Marriage Ordinance. The rest of the book is an investigation of the following topics: courtship, the necessity of consent for marriage (both on the part of the couple and on the part of their parents), impediments to marriage (infancy and mental inability, polygamy and precontracts, lack of fitness for marriage, incest), the question of interreligious marriage, economic considerations, the duration of engagement, and, finally, the publication of banns and the wedding ceremony itself. Throughout the volume Witte and Kingdon point out the evolution of Calvin's thought on these matters, his willingness to adapt his views in the light of new evidence, and his gradual movement toward what they call a doctrine of covenant.

A significant strength of the study is the fact that Witte and Kingdon bring to light both legal and theological perspectives on the material at hand. Calvin's own thought on sex, marriage, and family, they say, was informed by four main sources: (1) the Bible, particularly the Ten Commandments, (2) Roman or civil law, (3) the law of the Roman Catholic Church, or canon law, and (4) customary law. Calvin interpreted the relative compatibility of these disparate bodies of law, they argue, as a sign of a preexisting natural...