Polygamy Reconsidered: African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches [Paperback]

Eugene Hillman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (June 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883443929
• ISBN-13: 978-0883443927
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,857,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cognitive dissonance is alive and well and Catholic, November 11, 2001

By 

S. A. Chapman (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polygamy Reconsidered: African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches (Hardcover)

This book is written by a Catholic priest, theologian and missionary who has obviously struggled with the differences between his church's official position on polygamy and what the Bible says about it. This struggle was particularly important to him as he saw that the insistance on monogamy was hampering his effectiveness in countries where polygamy was popular. The really interesting thing about this book is watching someone squirm as they try to defend something the Bible allowed, but their Church banned, whilst at the same time he tries to remain faithful to that Church and its effective claims to supremacy over the Bible.
The author is in a fix. He is stuck in a religious system which, on November 11 1563 at the Roman Catholic Council of Trent said 'If anyone says that it is lawful for Christians to have several wives at the same time, and that it is not forbidden by any divine law, let him be anathema.' So that would be him!
To get out of this he tries to say that:-
a) they weren't really considering ordinary polygamy
b) They didn't think about missions and the pastoral question
c) They were only out to get the Reformers (some of whom said polygamy was not sinful) with specific reference to Europe where it was against the custom. (They thought they would win a greater market share of believers!)
d) 'anathema' and 'divine law' were used so much by the Council of Trent that they didn't really mean anything by them.
Sadly it is a particularly unconvincing sight. The priest has spotted that the Bible doesn't have a particular problem with polygamy, and that therefore the Roman Catholic Church is left having a problem with the Bible. Work it out for yourselves.
This is a good book and an interesting read. There are plenty of intriguing facts in here, even though some of them are out of date. The history is particularly interesting - the biblical coverage is basic but just about sufficient for the book's purpose. The author is too concerned with polygamists not being 'baptised', but this is unsurprising as he sees it as necessary for salvation. The author is also too concerned with driving a square peg into a round hole, but its fun to watch!

The book is split up as follows:-
Introduction - The principles and methods used in the book together with a definition of African polygamy and other mating forms.
Chapter 1 - The historical missionary and pastoral problem of African Polygamy
Chapter 2 - Cultural Presumptions of the West

Chapter 3 - Demography
Chapter 4 - Anthropology
Chapter 5 - Biblical texts
Chapter 6 - Theological Rationale
Appendix - On the Council of Trent