We’re delighted that our Assistant Principal, Lina Toth, has published her new book entitled Singleness and Marriage after Christendom. Publisher, Wipf and Stock, summarise:

Momentous change is taking place in Western societies and churches. Singleness is on the rise, along with growing interest in different pathways to human happiness. However, we still largely consider coupledom as the norm and a symbol of the good life. This is especially true in the Christian context, where the decline of “traditional” marriage and family patterns is often presented as an erosion of the Christian way of living. Yet when the church was very young, the world was also very concerned with the demise of traditional family ways–but the culprits accused of destroying family values were none other than Christians. A considerable number of them willingly chose to forego marriage, embracing Jesus’s vision of a new kind of a family: the church. This book follows the changes in the practice of marriage and singleness, from those early days of the Christian movement to our modern preoccupation with romance and coupledom as essential ingredients of a happy, fulfilled life. It argues that the current surge in the number of single people is actually an opportunity for us to reconsider both singleness and marriage in the larger context of a community of faith.
In the early pages Lina writes:
“When Christianity was very young, its cultural home—the Roman world—was very concerned with the demise of the traditional family ways which [just like in our times] was seen as the very basis of the good society. The culprits accused of destroying family and Roman society were none other than the Christians. One of the defining features of their movement was its allegiance to a different kind of a family called the church—something that shocked Jews and gentiles alike.”
Singleness and Marriage after Christendom, 1.
You can buy the book via the Wipf and Stock website here.
For further information you can contact Lina via her University email address lina.toth@uws.ac.uk