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 PrintableVersion The Great Divorce ControversyDivorce: are the Reformers to blame?THE GREAT DIVORCE CONTROVERSY Divorce is a modern evil which has resulted from the abandonment of biblical teaching. Starting with this premise, Edward Willams traces how we got here, and how bad the situation really is. In his professional life he is a public health statistician, which has given him an expertise at interpreting public documents and how to present a huge mass of facts and figures. He communicates these in an intelligent and interesting way. Although he peppers his survey with anecdotes and opinions, the underlying facts are always close at hand. About two thirds of this book is a history of divorce, from the Reformation to the modern day, with increasing depth of detail as it reaches our own time. For me, his summary of the Reformation, especially in England, was most interesting. He gives a vivid account of the attempt by Cranmer to introduce divorce and remarriage into Church of England law. This was narrowly defeated when Elizabeth I introduced a new emphasis on indissolubility, which then became the basis of the 1662 marriage service and all subsequent liturgies. His account of the growing debate and the twists and turns of the modern legal and ecclesiastical commissions are masterful, though often too detailed. This section is a Christian version of Lawrence Stone's book Road to Divorce (OUP 1990). The final third is a sociological survey of the effects of divorce. He collects evidence from a wide range of sources, from official statistics to newspaper stories of the rich or famous. The overwhelming picture of the dreadfulness of divorce is startling in the amount of detail and number of angles from which it is viewed. Divorce results in delinquent and maladjusted children, mentally ill and drug dependant adults, and general social breakdown. He dismisses the concept that divorce can sometimes be better for the children as an idea of the 1970s which has proved to be disastrously false. Between these two well-researched sections he has a couple of disappointing chapters on the teaching of Scripture. He presents a good summary of one interpretation, but fails to deal with the large number of other equally scholarly interpretations. He follows Heth and Wenham, as recently restated by Andrew Cornes, who teach the pre-Reformation view that separation is allowed only for adultery, and that marriage can only end when a partner dies. All other modern scholars are dismissed as 'false', without any discussion of their viewpoints (p.349). It should be pointed out, however, that I have a personal bias, because I am one of those 'false' scholars. This is a timely book, both for those lay and church leaders who are having to grapple with the church view on remarriage, and for those who are considering divorce. The final section on the effects of divorce forms a compelling case for marriage. Even a marriage filled with bitter silences or loud arguments appears better than the alternative. On the other hand, Williams does not offer any remedy for someone who is married to a constantly abusive or adulterous partner. He blames the Reformers for introducing the evil of divorce, but at least they were trying to provide answers which were practical as well as Scriptural. Dr David Instone-Brewer
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