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This volume documents the Western historical arguments for monogamy over polygamy, from antiquity to the present.
List of contents
1. From polygamy to monogamy in ancient Judaism; 2. Monogamy versus polygamy in the early church; 3. Polygamy in the laws of state and church in the first millennium; 4. The medieval case for monogamy over polygamy; 5. Polygamous experiments in early Protestantism; 6. The Calvinist case against polygamy and its civil law impact; 7. The English case against polygamy: theology, politics, and the early modern common law; 8. The early modern liberal case for polygamy; 9. The Enlightenment liberal case against polygamy; 10. The American case against polygamy.
About the author
John Witte, Jr is Robert W. Woodruff University Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, Atlanta. A world authority in legal history, he has directed twelve major international projects on democracy, human rights, religious liberty, marriage, family, and children. He has lectured throughout the world and published twenty-seven books, including, recently, Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2010) and The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered (Cambridge, 2009).
Summary
John Witte, Jr documents the historical arguments for monogamy over polygamy in the West from antiquity until today. Weighing traditional arguments alongside modern claims that anti-polygamy laws violate personal and religious freedom, Witte finds that the case against polygamy remains compelling.
