467 - Christian Marriage and Family: Caring for Our Generations

Christian Marriage and Family: Caring for Our Generations
By John Patton and Brian H. Childs
Nashville, Abingdon, 1988. 236 pp. $10.95.

In this volume, the authors, both of whom teach in the area of pastoral theology and pastoral care and counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, attempt a new approach to family care and counseling by emphasizing care for generations as their focal theme. They indicate that generations always includes three generations (sometimes more), and that the concerns of these generations always influence married life decisively and should influence the way that care and counseling of marriage and families is done (including individuals who may be living alone). Although the need for care for the generations seems in itself a rather obvious one, one of the main reasons for this emphasis is perhaps stated most clearly near the end of the book.

"We believe that a revised norm for Christian family living, like caring for your generations, could move the church away from its grief over the idealized family that might have been toward an inclusive view of the family as many different combinations of human beings who care for those before and after them."

They are trying to find a model that will take into account changes in family arrangements in the twentieth century and still be faithful to the teachings of the churches about

468 - Christian Marriage and Family: Caring for Our Generations

human beings while making use of contemporary theories of family therapy and counseling. The book is a blend of theory and practice with attention to individuals, pre-marital counseling (or guidance), marriage, generational caring in the nuclear family, separation and loss, the "blended family," and the minister's own family. Theologically, it owes most to Tillich and psychosocially to Boszormenyi-Nagy and psychoanalysis, although a wide range of theorists is also utilized.

I can recommend this book to the three readerships named by the authors: interested Christians, parish ministers, and specialists in pastoral counseling, but all three are going to have to be tolerant of some passages apparently not written with them in mind. I have some questions about specific positions taken in the book, particularly about distinctions between loyalty and commitment and between marriage as vocation and family as covenant. These do not quite hold up, as the authors seem to acknowledge at points. Nevertheless, Patton and Childs have made a significant contribution to widening our horizons about families and how to aid them.

James N. Lapsley
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, N.J.