Religion 314
Christian Ethics
Divorce: Christian Tradition and Culture versus Scripture
Should Christianity permit divorce? This is a question that has been debated for years, but no one answer has been found. One way to address this question is to turn to the most recognized and respected sources of knowledge on the topic of Christian tradition, The Bible. It seems most efficient to start from the beginning of Christianity’s holy text, The Bible; since the principles of Christianity derive from the teachings of this text. It starts with the story of Adam and Eve.
According to Christian Teachings and tradition, the stories in The Bible are meant to serve as examples for how Christians should and should not act. The Bible says, in Genesis chapter 2, that God created Adam and Eve so that they would be united as one flesh, husband and wife forever. God did not create two women for Adam to have a backup wife in case his relationship with Eve didn’t work out. And neither did God create more than one Adam for Eve to possibly divorce her first husband to remarry another. Even after Eve talked Adam into eating the forbidden fruit, which later condemned them to being cursed by God, they were still husband and wife for the rest of their lives. Now, it can be speculated that if this situation was re-created in modern times, Eve’s misleading Adam into actions that angered God and cause them to be banished from the Garden of Eden would serve as more than sufficient grounds for divorce. But this fact only proves that originally, divorce was unheard of because according to Christian tradition, it was not in God’s original plan for marriage, as the story of Adam and Eve shows. But Christian tradition regarding divorce and remarriage has evolved over time. &n ...