A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Greg Dallimore is a member of St Giles Presbyterian Church, in Prince George, B.C.
On Being Family: A Social Theology of the Family. Ray S. Anderson and Dennis B. Guernsey, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985, paperback, $11.95, 168 pages.
When we speak of the family, we usually envisage a unit (i.e. parents and children, grandmothers, etc.). However, when assistance is given to the family, it often involves dealing with each individual in the family separately, then seeing the unit as a whole. Anderson and Guernsey, in On Being Family, focus on the family as a whole from the outset, the family as a culture, linking the areas of sociology (the nature of human society) and theology (the analysis of faith). The authors call this amalgam “social theology”.
Anderson and Guernsey suggest little research has been done in seeing the family, not as individuals, but as an entity which interacts within itself. Individuals, therefore, interact with each other as a system and with society individually and collectively. This way of looking at the family is very different from much of both secular and Christian psychology. Most psychological thinking, the authors contend, is “Cartesian”, that is, all thinking is reduced to its smallest unit. Most scientific approaches wish to break the universe into a unit that is quantifiable and “accurate”. NonCartesian thinking would have us look at the family as an entity that, yes, has individuals, but whose individuals “are only members to be understood in the context of their social systems.”
Implicit in understanding this book is accepting the “wedding” of theology and sociology. Throughout the book, Guernsey and Anderson argue from both perspectives, taking the reader through spiritual insights on the family and seeing the family (marriage, siblings, bonding) as an interactive, dynamic grouping. Anderson, a Professor of Theology at Fuller Seminary, discusses the covenant relationship, the Bible’s imperatives about marriage and the Christian view of raising children. Guernsey, an Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Ministries at Fuller, presents the family in terms of marriage as a social system, parenting as a sociological function and the anthropological nature of the family.
This book is not designed for the average Christian reader. By its nature, it is a resource for professionals grappling with and ministering to the family. The reader must understand the psychological backgrounds offered in the book, as well as a smattering of sociology. Having said this. On Being Family: A Social Theology of the Family presents refreshing new insight into the family. The authors see the family more globally than most of us would acknowledge or realize: the sub-family of the corporate family. Hence, Anderson and Guernsey state “.. .the church is a. . . family of families. How we perceive the idea of family will determine in subtle ways how we perceive the church.”