Abstract.For the past two decades, I have been developing an integrative Christian marriage theory, based in part on a grounding concept of natural law and an overarching theory of covenant. The natural law part of this theory starts with an account of the natural facts, conditions, interests, needs, and qualities of human life, interaction, and generation—what I call the “premoral” goods or realities of life. It then identifies the natural inclinations of humans to form enduring and exclusive monogamous marriages and to preserve these units as the central site for intimacy, procreation, and nurture of children. In this paper, I first summarize this natural law theory of marriage and then compare it to the formulations of other modern Christian thinkers. I also defend this theory against various modern critics of natural law—in part by reinterpreting some traditional natural law teachings that in my view have been misunderstood, in part by looking at the interesting convergences between the insights into sex, marriage, and family life offered by contemporary Christian theological ethicists and by evolutionary biologists and biological anthropologists.

Don S. Browning

Zygon®

Zygon focuses on the questions of meaning and values that challenge individual and social existence today. It brings together the best thinking of the day from the physical, biological, and social sciences with ideas from philosophy, theology, and religious studies. The journal"s contributors seek to keep united what may often become disconnected: values with knowledge, goodness with truth, religion with science.

The journal Zygon focuses on the questions of meaning and values that challenge individual and social existence today. It brings together leading thoughts from the physical, biological, and social sciences with ideas from philosophy, theology, and religious studies. The contributors to the journal aim to unite what may often become disconnected: values with knowledge, goodness with truth, and religion with science.

《Zygon》期刊关注当今挑战个人和社会存在的意义与价值问题。它汇集了来自物理、生命和社会科学的前沿思考，以及哲学、神学和宗教研究的思想。期刊的贡献者们致力于将常常可能脱节的内容结合起来：将价值与知识、善与真理、宗教与科学相统一。

Category	Quartile
哲学	4
哲学, 宗教	4
哲学, 社会问题	4

A NATURAL LAW THEORY OF MARRIAGE*

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Journal Info

Category	Quartile
SOCIAL ISSUES	3