What Is Marriage? by {author}: summary and why it matters

What it argues

The authors, who write from the natural law tradition, distinguish two views of marriage. The conjugal view holds that marriage is a comprehensive union of a man and a woman, bodily as well as emotional, ordered toward the family and having a unique link to procreation, and that it calls for permanence and exclusivity. The revisionist view holds that marriage is mainly an emotional union that any set of adults may form.

They argue that the conjugal view is the foundation of marriage law in most societies and that the state has an interest in it because of children. Redefining marriage, they contend, would make the ideals of permanence and exclusivity hard to defend and weaken the norm that children are best raised by their mother and father.

The book also answers objections about infertile couples, equality and religious liberty, and it was published as the debate over same-sex marriage was at its height.

Why it matters

The book is the most systematic statement of the traditional position by serious philosophers, and it is cited by opponents and supporters. Since the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, its argument has moved from a policy proposal to a view about how to live in a changed legal setting.

About the author

Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George wrote the book as a defense of the traditional definition of marriage in the midst of a debate on the matter. George (born 1955) is a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, and Anderson and Girgis were his students. It grew out of a law review article they wrote together in 2010.

Who should read it

Readers who want the argument as the proponents give it.