463 - On Being Family: A Social Theology of the Family

On Being Family: A Social Theology of the Family
Ray S. Anderson and Dennis B. Guernsey
Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1986. 168 pp. $11.95.

Ray Anderson, professor of theology and ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary and Dennis B. Guernsey, associate professor of marriage and family ministries at Fuller, propose a new model for a theologically and biblically based social theology of the family. Writing from an explicitly evangelical Christian perspective, Anderson and Guernsey adopt an integration model which affirms Scripture as normative. Each contributes chapters that demonstrate the usefulness of sociology and systems theories when placed in dialogue with biblical theology. Their praxis-oriented social theology is founded upon "the creative Word of God" as the interpretive principle which allows them to critique the rigidity of fundamentalist perspectives on family and what the authors regard as the relative normlessness of more liberal theological positions. The covenant love of God is the crucial paradigm for their insightful reflections on parenting, sexuality and marriage, and spiritual formation in the family. Through the lens of the transformed life of the new household of faith, made possible in Jesus Christ, Anderson and Guernsey are able to offer critical appraisals and constructive responses to the church's tendency to absolutize the nuclear family.

This book is a creative and valuable contribution from the evangelical perspective to the current literature of theology and family theory. Herbert Anderson's The Family and Pastoral Care (Fortress, 1984) is a good companion to this volume providing an alternative theological and methodological approach which is also provocative.

Nancy J. Ramsay
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Louisville, Ky.