The Politics of Conjugal Love: A Baptismal and Trinitarian Approach to Headship and Submission
Ebook
Overview
Does the New Testament teach that a wife must submit to her husband as head? If so, does it have a lasting value beyond the cultural milieu in which it was first articulated? The Politics of Conjugal Love takes a fresh approach to this classic issue in theological anthropology, paying specific attention to the role of theological hermeneutics in its interpretation. Conor Sweeney and Brian T. Trainor contend that both “subordinationist” and “anti-subordinationist” readings of headship and submission miss the mark. Their alternative is a baptismally specified trinitarian reading in which headship and submission appear as modes intrinsic to both life in Christ and the love proper to the highest mode of trinitarian love.
“Is it possible to rediscover the language of conjugal love when
marriage has been deconstructed and any reference to nature is
viewed with suspicion? In order to regain the poetry of love as a
hymn of praise to God, C. Sweeney and B. T. Trainor trace in this
evocative book the personalistic, Christocentric, and Trinitarian
dimensions of love through the sacramental language of
baptism.”
—Livio Melina, Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical John
Paul II Theological Institute, Rome
“I applaud Conor Sweeney’s venture into a modern
minefield, the enigmas of submission and rank, as they apply to the
teaching on marriage in Ephesians 5. It begs us all to question our
hearts deeply in the light of Christ’s own headship and
kenosis.”
—Anna M. Silvas, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the
Humanities, and senior research fellow at the University of New
England, Australia
Conor Sweeney is author of Sacramental Presence after
Heidegger: Onto-theology, Sacraments, and the Mother’s Smile
(2015) and Abiding the Long Defeat: How to Evangelize Like a
Hobbit in a Disenchanted Age (2018).
For most of his academic career, the late Dr. Brian T. Trainor
worked as Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Social Sciences at the
University of South Australia. He later served as Senior Lecturer
and Head of Postgraduate Studies in Humanities at Tabor Adelaide.
Dr. Trainor published several books and international journal
articles sharing his intellectual insights in the areas of
philosophy, theology, and political theory—often nuanced by his
compelling advocacy for traditional Christian marriage and
family.