Created for Love: Towards a new teaching on sex and marriage

Leading thinkers and writers in the Church of England bring scripture, doctrine, tradition and pastoral theology into conversation with culture and experience to frame a new understanding of sex and marriage that is both faithful to the past and embracing of the present. Here is a bold, fresh, positive and coherent vision for the future. “This book will give hope to the many Anglicans like me who happen to be gay and are hanging on by a thread waiting for the church we love to become fully welcoming and inclusive.” "Though we often disguise it well, the Church is a school for love. The essays in this book offer some lessons in that school, perspectives that remove the shame that those who discover themselves to be gay are often made to feel, and inviting us not to single out such brothers and sisters, making them a synodical problem, but to celebrate them and their relationships with equal dignity, and as a heartfelt joy. If we really believe, argue these writers, that all human beings are created for love, then the Church is defined by what we do next to make our community a place of integrity and belonging." "It’s such a relief to read honest and thoughtful contributions to what is often a polarised and fractious dispute. Contrary to the tone of much of the church’s contemporary debates, this book provides more light than heat. ‘Created for Love’ places discussions about sexuality where they belong; not in the courtroom or debating chamber but within the delicacy of prayerful conversation immersed in Scripture, theological consideration of the body made in God’s image, not a little humour, and in humane recognition that in these matters of sex and sexuality, we are all vulnerable adults." A sparkling array of leading thinkers and writers in the Church of England bring scripture, doctrine, tradition and pastoral theology into conversation with culture and lived experience to frame a new understanding of sex and marriage that is both faithful to the past and embracing of the present, and counters accusations of an ‘anything goes liberalism’ by conservative opponents. Moving beyond the default arguments and the use of scriptures to shore up fixed positions, it offers a welcoming space grounded in theological understanding. Here is a bold, fresh, positive and coherent vision for the future.Contributors include: Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Barnabas Palfry, Gareth Wardell, John Inge, Samuel Wells, Olivia Graham, Mark Chapman, Vivienne Faull, Steven Croft, Theo Hobson, Helen King and Charlie Bell.

• | Author: John Inge, Theo Hobson
• | Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich
• | Publication Date: Jul 24, 2025
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• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781786226693
• | ISBN-10: 1786226693