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Reviews
Divorce and Remarriage | ||
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Virginia Todd Holeman Journal of Psychology and Christianity Vol. 22 No. 3, 2003 |
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Few topics create as much pastoral counseling anxiety as that of divorce and remarriage. Clergy, counselors, and clients often find themselves try-ing to reconcile real-life pain with biblical teach-ing on divorce and remarriage. For example, if the obvious teaching of Jesus allows for divorce only in the case of adultery or desertion by an unbelieving spouse, what do we do about spousal abuse? Are abused women or men left to choose between disobedience and safety? Into this whirlpool steps David Instone-Brewer. In Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Instone-Brewer dons his biblical scholar's cap and explores the social context of the first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman world and the literary context of the biblical texts. His purpose is to understand "the meaning of the New Testament teaching on divorce and remarriage as it would have been understood by its original readers" (p. xi) and to shed fresh light on our traditional understandings about divorce and remarriage. The eleven chapters of Divorce and Remar-riage in the Bible plunge the reader into the biblical world. Instone-Brewer uses the social-historical contexts of the biblical narrative as an interpretive lens for understanding key texts. Chapters 1 and 2 unpack the Mosaic teaching on divorce and remarriage by examining the culture of the Ancient Near East. Chapter 3 examines the teachings of the prophets and the Old Testament. Chapters 4 and 5 review the immense cultural changes that took place dur-ing the intertestamental period, including increasing rights for women and an in-depth discussion on the rabbinic debates (Shammaite vs. Hillelites) about divorce and remarriage. This in turn provides the cultural context for Jesus' teachings (Chapter 6) that arc subse-quently contrasted with the Greco-Roman world that frames Paul's instructions on divorce and remarriage (Chapter 7). While Chapter 8 traces the biblical and Judaic history of contemporary wedding vows, Instone-Brewer reviews the development of what he considers to be misinterpretations of divorce and remarriage through-out church history in Chapter 9. In Chapter 10 he offers alternative interpretations of key New Testament texts about divorce and remarriage based on data that he provided in Chapters 1 through 7. He concludes this work with some practical considerations for pastors (Chapter II). Many readers will discover that Instone-Brewer challenges some commonly held interpretations of Jesus or Paul's position on divorce and remar-riage. Instone-Brewer argues that the early church fathers misinterpreted key biblical pas-sages on divorce and remarriage because they did not have access to the history on first centu-ry rabbinic debates about divorce (Chapter 5). These misunderstandings continued through the Reformation and are now accepted as church tradition. With the relatively recent discovery and translation of ancient manuscripts such as the Qumran texts, biblical scholars now have access to this critical missing data. For some this will be disconcerting. For others, it will be a breath of fresh air. For all, it will challenge us to become cognizant of our interpretive stance when we read scripture. Four features of the book's structure recom-mend it to a discerning reader. First is the com-prehensive bibliography. Second are indices of modern authors and subjects. Third is the index of scripture and other ancient texts, which will be invaluable to those who desire to delve more deeply into social and literary criticism. Finally there is the structure of the work itself. Each chapter opens with an abstract of its contents and closes with a review of its main movements. Readers can therefore build scaffolding for their understanding of the book by reviewing these in the order in which they are presented. In between these opening and closing summaries one finds a scholar at work. I particularly liked Chapter 10 (Modern Reinterpretations: Different Ways to Understand the Biblical Text). Here Instone-Brewer uses a series of six questions to organize the possible biblical interpretations on divorce and remarriage in summary form. He concludes each question's discussion with a sub-section that he labels ''my position." Readers are free to agree or disagree with his conclusion. Unfortunately, his closing chapter on pastoral consideration is the weakest aspect of this work. Much to his credit, however, Instone-Brewer openly acknowledges that his strength is biblical scholarship, not pastoral counseling. I might sug-gest that this is where pastoral and professional counselors need to pick up the proverbial baton. Virginia Todd Holeman (Asbury Theological Semi-nary/Wilmore, KY).
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