Singleness and Marriage after Christendom

“This is an excellent book that provides a helpful corrective and an innovative approach to much of the Christian literature on what it means to be human and to be family. Lina Toth offers a careful analysis of the historical context which opens up a myriad of other ways of being and doing family. This is framed around friendship as a personal, communal, and missional practice which challenges us to live out new ways of being family in our current individualized and often isolated Western contexts.”


—Cathy Ross, head of Pioneer Mission Leadership Training, Oxford





“The book provides a very helpful way into charting the Scriptures, the early church, and what some key theologians have reflected on singleness and marriage. . . . It will provoke further thought, challenge inherited and prevailing attitudes on how we view sexual relationships, and raise questions as to what the church as community might entail. Drawing on the radical nature of Jesus, it provides a lifeline of hope to explore and provide richer resources on singleness, marriage, family life, and community, shaped by a deep biblical analysis. The book is a valuable resource, written by a gifted communicator, which will provide informed starting points for further discussion.”


—Roy Searle, former leader, Northumbria Community








“Though many today are appealing to ‘traditional family values’ or ‘traditional understandings of marriage,’ Lina Toth is one of the few seriously investigating these traditions. Her book makes her solid biblical and historical research beautifully accessible. Some cherished assumptions crumble, but her work enables us to grasp the shocking things Jesus actually said, and to be caught up in his call to a life of love, hope, joy, and intimacy in his new family.”


—Nathan Nettleton, Baptist pastor and marriage celebrant educator, Melbourne