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John Witte Jr, THE SINS OF THE FATHERS: THE LAW AND THEOLOGY OF ILLEGITIMACY RECONSIDERED Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org), 2009. xiv + 211 pp. ISBN 9780521839419 (hb). £45. ISBN 9780521548243 (pb). £15.99.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorJohn W Cairns
Date01 January 2010
DOI10.3366/E136498090900122X
Pages180-180
Published date01 January 2010

This is a brilliant and wide-ranging book exploring what the author describes as the “paradoxes” of illegitimacy. At the same time a theological, historical, and legal work, it is also a humane and profound reflection on social issues and problems. As modern Western legal systems downplay the significance of illegitimacy (in Scotland, especially since 1986), and promote forms of marriage other than that of tradition between a man and a woman, the importance to the well-being of a child of being reared in a stable family (of whatever nature) has been emphasised by social science.

With an introduction and a conclusion, the book consists of five chapters covering illegitimacy in early Judaism and Christianity, the classical Roman law on legitimacy and legitimation, sex, marriage and sin in medieval canon law, the English Common Law and its reforms, and the “new law of non-marital childhood” in the USA and elsewhere. Witte eschews any simple teleology of progress, but also provides a convincing critique of biblical interpretations and a sophisticated analysis of his own. He attacks the thorny issue of the influence of Christianity on Roman law, and produces here too a convincing explanation of his own. His discussion of canon law and the development of a changing hierarchy of illegitimacy...

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