Jason KING and Julie HANLON RUBIO, eds. Sex, Love, and Families: Catholic Perspectives. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press Academic, 2020. pp. 315. $34.95 pb. Reviewed by Dolores L. CHRISTIE, Cleveland, OH 44122.

What topics could be more interesting? Once more Liturgical Press has published a book on controversial topics that draws on academic integrity and novel thinking from a variety of authors and perspectives. Its many articles on sex, love, and family embrace the challenge of Vatican II to listen to the “signs of the times.” Each represents a serious Catholic exploration of important questions posed by contemporary culture. As the editors note, “The church can neither abandon its past or retreat into it.”

Section I considers sex in a modern world, in evolving relational and marital models, and in gender. Many of the authors are themselves married. Some represent under-voiced groups. They draw on sociology, statistics, personal experience, and theology to challenge the reader to think beyond the past.

Contemporary conclusions from biology and psychology raise questions previous times did not understand, avoided, or even censured. For young people, casual sex—today’s “hook-up” culture— provokes no shock. They have stepped over condoms at doorways to college dorms.

The women’s movement empowers the “weaker sex” to be more than submissive sexual partners and dutiful daughters of Betty Furness, the perky television salesman for then-modern refrigerators. One author even suggests we rethink natural law beyond the usual binary man-woman gender construct. Catholic theology must take modern reality seriously and enter a new marriage of Catholic values to this new reality.

Section II addresses marriage and the traditional Catholic call to holiness. Anyone who knows anything about marriage knows how important spousal dialogue is to personal growth, even when it is uncomfortable. Marriage affords an opportunity to develop nourishing friendships that bear fruit beyond the household to incarnate God’s own love in the world.

Some articles consider an expanded idea of family beyond the mom, dad, and loving children model. Situations like widowhood, divorce, and the single state (with or without children), too, should be loci for love and for seeing and spreading the presence of Christ. The greater community has a responsibility to support and encourage these often-invisible groups.

Section III digs deeper into how “family” has evolved in other ways and how external issues affect them. Marriages of today are much less homogenous than those of the past. Several articles raise the questions of such “mixed” marriages. Some meld different religious affiliation or even no religion at all. Families struggle with financial and racial issues. There are marital pairs where one is incarcerated or does not have citizenship. Fear and ongoing separation stress many families. Couples like Louis and Zelie Martin (parents of the Little Flower) may be canonized, but today they may be meaningless models.

As a geriatric go-to-meeting Catholic, married-for-sixty-years-to-the same-guy moral theologian, I found this book exciting. Readers may find selections that are “comfortable,” relying heavily on past and current Church teaching as their starting place. Some articles remain there. Nevertheless, most reflect the real world of my eleven grandkids. They look bravely to sociological data and creative Catholic responses to today’s complex cultural reality. Each article raises important questions for further reflection. Some pieces derive from personal experience. Others are more “heady.” Perhaps the number of non-clergy authors accounts for the “real feel” of most of the work.

From the hook-up and serial relationship culture of today to the challenges of modern-day marriage, such as family spirituality, play, and celebration, even during times of stress; the book does not limit its scope. It addresses privilege, feminism, and even puts a positive spin on the seduction of technology. In a longer review, it would be efficacious to pick apart the bones of the various contributions. I shall resist that temptation.

Certainly, this is a think-outside-the-box read. I recommend it strongly for parents, pastors, and college professors. Some will find the book threatening and put it aside. That is too bad, particularly since—unlike creedal formulae—Catholic moral teaching can change. Many of these articles assume this evolution in moral conclusions in the history of the church, including the recent papal comments on civil marriage for gay couples. Norms applying to topics of gender, sex, and marital patriarchy can move beyond the past. This book is an excellent resource toward that end.