'Scant decades ago most Westerners agreed that...lifelong monogamy was ideal...mothers should stay home with the children...premarital sex was to be discouraged ...heterosexuality was the unquestioned norm...popular culture should not corrupt children. Today not a single one of these expectations is uncontroversial.' So writes Rodney Clapp in assessing the status of the family in postmodern Western society. In response many evangelicals have been quick to defend the so-called traditional family, assuming that it exemplifies the biblical model. Clapp challenges that assumption, arguing that the 'traditional' family is a reflection more of the nineteenth-century middle-class family than of any family one can find in Scripture. At the same time, he recognizes that many modern and postmodern options are not acceptable to Christians. Returning to the biblical story afresh, Clapp articulates a challenge to both sides of a critical debate.
