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Families at the Crossroads: Beyond Tradition Modern Options
"Scant decades ago most Westerners agreed that . . . Lifelong monogamy was ideal . . . Mothers should stay home with children . . . premarital sex was to be discouraged . . . Heterosexuality was the unquestioned norm . . . popular culture should not corrupt children. Today not a single one of these expectations is uncontroversial." So writes Rodney Clapp in assessing the status of the family in postmodern Western society. In response many evangelicals have been quick to defend the so-called traditional family, assuming that it exemplifies the biblical model. Clapp challenges that assumption, arguing that the "traditional" family is a reflection more of the nineteenth-century middle-class family than of any family one can find in Scripture. At the same time, he recognizes that many modern and postmodern options are not acceptable to Christians. Returning to the biblical story afresh to see what it might say to us in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Clapp articulates a challenge to both sides of a critical debate. A book to help us rethink the significance of the family for the next century.
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 28, 2017
Fantastic analysis of Western and Christian assumptions about family, and a clear resurrection-based ecclesiology which rightly prioritizes the Church over family and finds proper value for both singleness and marriage.
May 18, 2019
Picked this up on a recommendation to think about singleness. I'll spend months thinking through how to span the public/private divide in life and what hospitality looks like when enacted by Christians.
April 15, 2016
I found this book interesting and challenging concerning family, church and being a christian family in these times (even though the book is written more than twenty years ago, most aspects of it remains relevant e.g. the influence of capitalism on family, and the new situation laid out by postmodernity).
I recommend it for christians interested in family and sexuality issues, and especially to those who think that "traditional" nuclear family must be defended. The author claims that there´s nothing especially natural or biblical to the family evangelicas cling to - defence of "traditional family" just echoes values from 19th century bourgeois family ideals.
I recommend it for christians interested in family and sexuality issues, and especially to those who think that "traditional" nuclear family must be defended. The author claims that there´s nothing especially natural or biblical to the family evangelicas cling to - defence of "traditional family" just echoes values from 19th century bourgeois family ideals.
June 9, 2015
Great book - urges you to use your imagination as to what 'Christian Family' could look like and exposes what's natural as merely a cultural construct. Little slow at times, but thats expected - as this is primarily a long essay. Absolutely worth the read if you are wanting/willing to think outside the box.
June 12, 2013
Purpose:
The purpose of Clapp in this book is multifaceted. With broad strokes, Clapp intends to challenge Evangelical Christians in their championing of what they call the traditional family and their advocacy for family being the foundation of the world (10). Yet he also has contentions with the glorification of the family with in church, the social responsibility of the Christian, the embrace of capitalism and finally that the "traditional" family is the only "biblical" family (12).
Additionally, as Clapp closes chapter 1, with a fine brush he's specifies his intent: that he will "emphasize the centrality of the church as the one and only Christian polity in the world. It is the true basis and hope and support of the Christian nuclear family" (25).
Highlights:
Clapp's first swing comes swift in establishing the cause for the battle over family is grounded in postmodernity. He believes we live in times of "incredibly rapid and prolific change" that "people, products, ideas and cultures" change and even mutate. Clapp would include "family" in this change most particularly. He finds a problem with Evangelicals version of "family" and how they call it "traditional," "biblical," and even "natural" - where the "nuclear family" consists of a "heterosexual couple and their children, in which the husband and the father is the breadwinner and the wife and mother manages the home and childrearing (11). This is where Clapp establishes what the evangelicals think is family - the "bourgeois" family. His main thrust for why the family has viewed like this is attributed to the rise of capitalism (chapter 3).
Before his proposition against capitalism he first establishes the unnaturalness of family in chapter 2. He admits how family is imperative to people and it is basic to our identity in the world we live in. But the world we live in now has questioned how family should be defined - is it best understood as a man & woman and their biological (or adopted) offspring (29)? Or is society better off widening the definition, he asks. He asks because he's willing to admit the situation the church is in is deeper than they'd like to admit - calling it for what it is. He admits that the post-modern world is a confused and divided world (30) and has waged war on our families. This is something we as a church cannot escape. Because of the war on family he concludes and explains how "unnatural" family really is. This is foundational for Clapp and the rest of the book. He looks at how family has admittedly taken on different shapes and forms and once that is affirmed, one can begin to ask what shape the Christian family looks like.
Even in attempting to define Christian family he asserts that by the definitions many evangelicals have come up with, the Biblical families would be unbiblical by those definitions (i.e. the bourgeois model). Much of his case for this is in comparing and contrasting the Israelite conception of family with the bourgeois model that he already described. It all is to showcase that the family takes different shapes and forms and cannot be assumed the proposed definition and will not "fall into place all by itself" (39).
Theologically, Clapp makes the case that this is displacement of family definitions is a result of the Fall in Genesis 2. He uses Paul's arguments in Romans 1 and 2 to demonstrate how our corrupted imagination and darkened corrupted minds has resulted in the degradation of our bodies and the fracturing of all our social relations - including the family (46). And it is "only by seeing Jesus and all that he means can we begin to build natural families, families that serve the one and final reality, which we call the kingdom of God (46)." Thus, to restore and to redeem family, it must begin with the church, not a nation or family itself.
Much of his thesis is summed up in chapter four: Church As First Family. Here he contends in two declarations, one positive and one negative. The negative declaration is as bold as the positive: "The family is not God's most important institution on earth" (67). And the positive: "The church is God's most important institution on earth" (68). He believes by putting the church first will run counter to the interpretation of many evangelical traditions. He makes a case that is summarized by saying that when families put the biological family first, the emphatically place family at the center of God's purposes and work on behalf of the world (68). There is a dichotomy he sees in the attempt to put family first and at the same time put Jesus first. He believes you cannot. "Jesus creates a new family," Clapp writes. "It is the new first family, a family of his followers that now demands primary allegiance. In fact, it demands allegiance even over the old first family, the biological family" (77). And he is first to admit how radical this is and how severe the consequences are. But the allegiance to the kingdom that precedes family does not destroy family. Instead, he believes Jesus affirms the existence of family in relation to the new one - those that are not necessarily blood-related, but bought by the blood of the lamb (78).
The purpose of Clapp in this book is multifaceted. With broad strokes, Clapp intends to challenge Evangelical Christians in their championing of what they call the traditional family and their advocacy for family being the foundation of the world (10). Yet he also has contentions with the glorification of the family with in church, the social responsibility of the Christian, the embrace of capitalism and finally that the "traditional" family is the only "biblical" family (12).
Additionally, as Clapp closes chapter 1, with a fine brush he's specifies his intent: that he will "emphasize the centrality of the church as the one and only Christian polity in the world. It is the true basis and hope and support of the Christian nuclear family" (25).
Highlights:
Clapp's first swing comes swift in establishing the cause for the battle over family is grounded in postmodernity. He believes we live in times of "incredibly rapid and prolific change" that "people, products, ideas and cultures" change and even mutate. Clapp would include "family" in this change most particularly. He finds a problem with Evangelicals version of "family" and how they call it "traditional," "biblical," and even "natural" - where the "nuclear family" consists of a "heterosexual couple and their children, in which the husband and the father is the breadwinner and the wife and mother manages the home and childrearing (11). This is where Clapp establishes what the evangelicals think is family - the "bourgeois" family. His main thrust for why the family has viewed like this is attributed to the rise of capitalism (chapter 3).
Before his proposition against capitalism he first establishes the unnaturalness of family in chapter 2. He admits how family is imperative to people and it is basic to our identity in the world we live in. But the world we live in now has questioned how family should be defined - is it best understood as a man & woman and their biological (or adopted) offspring (29)? Or is society better off widening the definition, he asks. He asks because he's willing to admit the situation the church is in is deeper than they'd like to admit - calling it for what it is. He admits that the post-modern world is a confused and divided world (30) and has waged war on our families. This is something we as a church cannot escape. Because of the war on family he concludes and explains how "unnatural" family really is. This is foundational for Clapp and the rest of the book. He looks at how family has admittedly taken on different shapes and forms and once that is affirmed, one can begin to ask what shape the Christian family looks like.
Even in attempting to define Christian family he asserts that by the definitions many evangelicals have come up with, the Biblical families would be unbiblical by those definitions (i.e. the bourgeois model). Much of his case for this is in comparing and contrasting the Israelite conception of family with the bourgeois model that he already described. It all is to showcase that the family takes different shapes and forms and cannot be assumed the proposed definition and will not "fall into place all by itself" (39).
Theologically, Clapp makes the case that this is displacement of family definitions is a result of the Fall in Genesis 2. He uses Paul's arguments in Romans 1 and 2 to demonstrate how our corrupted imagination and darkened corrupted minds has resulted in the degradation of our bodies and the fracturing of all our social relations - including the family (46). And it is "only by seeing Jesus and all that he means can we begin to build natural families, families that serve the one and final reality, which we call the kingdom of God (46)." Thus, to restore and to redeem family, it must begin with the church, not a nation or family itself.
Much of his thesis is summed up in chapter four: Church As First Family. Here he contends in two declarations, one positive and one negative. The negative declaration is as bold as the positive: "The family is not God's most important institution on earth" (67). And the positive: "The church is God's most important institution on earth" (68). He believes by putting the church first will run counter to the interpretation of many evangelical traditions. He makes a case that is summarized by saying that when families put the biological family first, the emphatically place family at the center of God's purposes and work on behalf of the world (68). There is a dichotomy he sees in the attempt to put family first and at the same time put Jesus first. He believes you cannot. "Jesus creates a new family," Clapp writes. "It is the new first family, a family of his followers that now demands primary allegiance. In fact, it demands allegiance even over the old first family, the biological family" (77). And he is first to admit how radical this is and how severe the consequences are. But the allegiance to the kingdom that precedes family does not destroy family. Instead, he believes Jesus affirms the existence of family in relation to the new one - those that are not necessarily blood-related, but bought by the blood of the lamb (78).
February 4, 2014
This was a wonderful read. It examines Christianity living in relationship with family in a post modern world. What it look like to navigate that world. I enjoyed the different categories of family it explored. I was challenged by the IDea that the church is the first family. This would make a great book for any mft student or pastor looking to bring Christianity at the center of a very moralistic ally unbalanced culture
July 6, 2009
When this book came out in the late 1990s, Stanley Hauerwas said it was "the best book we have on the family by a Christian theologian." I think this is still the case. Rodney Clapp talks about how much the family is harmed by values of the common culture, and how Christians should instead be a people who embody a truly Christian way of life.
February 21, 2016
This book is brilliant and enlightening. The book is scriptures centered. Clapp, however seems to leave no room for Christian couples with no children. I wonder about whether this is an oversight, since he declares that singleness has special place in the body. Yet, marrieds are assumed to be child rearing. Food for thought.
July 15, 2016
Highly influenced by Hauerwas' 'Community of Character'. It advocates a strongly communal/narratival view of the church and theology and employs rich current cultural material throughout.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews