Gillian Clark, Christianity and Roman Society - Huntington University

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and unlike the medieval Catholic view, marriage belongs solely to the earthly realm. It is
“a good and holy ordinance of God just like farming, building, cobbling, and barbering”
(39). From this starting point, Calvin and his fellow reformers set about bringing the
practice of marriage in Geneva more closely into line with a more secular conception. It
comes as no surprise, therefore, that Calvin was intensely critical of “the Church’s
‘usurpation’ of marital jurisdiction from the secular judges, its condoning of secret
marriages of minors without parental consent, its restrictions on the seasons for
engagement, its long roll of marital impediments beyond ‘the law of nations and of
Moses,’ its easy dispensations from marital rules for the propertied and the powerful, its
prohibitions against divorce and remarriage” (40)—even though the latter existed de
facto, if not de jure for those who could pay.
Unlike many of his reforming counterparts in other cities, however, Calvin’s view of
marriage did not remain at this rather mundane, deconstructed level. One of the strongest
features of the present work, in fact, is that it allows us to see the development of
Calvin’s views over the course of his tenure in Geneva, as he preached through the Old
and New Testaments, worked with the city government to put his ideas into practice, and
then refined his thinking through his pastoral work on the Consistory. It was this latter
setting, in fact, which proved to be the real laboratory for the development of Calvin’s
theology of marriage. The picture which emerges from these documents is that of a
reformer committed to certain key insights, yet willing to rethink his teaching in
conversation with scripture, his colleagues in Geneva and abroad, and with the practical
exigencies of the situation “on the ground.” For example, the third chapter documents
Calvin’s early efforts at matchmaking, a role he soon wisely abandoned.
The most important in change in Calvin’s thinking on marriage, the authors argue, is
the development of his application of a theological concept, covenant, to the bond of
marriage. Over the course of his tenure in Geneva, and especially in the last decade of his
life, Calvin came to have a much more exalted view of marriage as “a symbol of our
divine covenant with the Father” (489). This did not mean, of course, that marriage was
itself sacramental; it might signify divine grace, but it could not confirm it. “Anyone who
would classify such similitudes with the sacraments,” Calvin reaffirmed in 1559, “ought
to be sent to a mental hospital.” Nevertheless, Witte and Kingdon convincingly document
Calvin’s movement toward a view of marriage as “the holiest bond that God has set
among us,” a sacred contract to which God himself acted as third party. A long way from
cobbling, this. And the link between God’s creation ordinance and its redemptive purpose
in marriage was the concept of covenant. Despite Calvin’s harsh rejection of the language
of sacrament in marriage, the authors demonstrate that Calvin’s theology of marriage
developed into a mediating position between “both the sacramental and the contractual
models of marriage that pressed for recognition in his day” (488).
Witte and Kingdon have inaugurated their new project with a superb first volume.
The blend of source text and scholarly commentary allows the reader to test the authors’
conclusions against the relevant textual evidence as the argument of the work unfolds,
making this an ideal textbook for an upper-division undergraduate seminar on social
history in early modern Europe or for a seminary course on the history of marriage and