Robert P. George

This deserves about a 3.6 but I rounded up to 4/5.
Pros:
no exclusively religious arguments
respectful, i.e. no homophobia. In fact, a legal defense in favor of gay rights
readable, while there is some philosophical jargon, the authors define their terms well
concise, only about 150 pages
balanced, while the authors have a particular perspective, they interact with opposing viewpoints including direct criticisms of their arguments

Cons:
- somewhat repetitive, the structure of the book is to show more give a defense of conjugal marriage in the first 3 chapters and then rearticulate it different circumstances. It's a legitimate structure but can appear redundant to the reader
- broad, this is the common tug-of-war with an introduction to a topic: broad and shallow or deep and narrow? Here, I think the authors went a little too broad so as to leave the reader wanting more detail. An additional 100 pages or so would have been helpful.

Overall, good introduction to the topic. I would not consider it to be a knockdown argument that refutes all opposing viewpoints, but, that isn't its intent. show less

In this book, Robert P. George – a conservative, Catholic professor at Princeton – discusses some of the most controversial issues in contemporary American political life, including contraception, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, pornography, and (especially) abortion. His primary goal is to show that Catholic Church’s positions on these issues are intellectually defensible; he therefore attempts to answer criticism of the Catholic positions with arguments based on reason rather than the show more Bible or divine revelation. Professor George also examines the American legal tradition, especially pondering what role natural law theory should (or shouldn’t) play in judicial decisionmaking.

First of all, I should note that this book is primarily a collection of essays and articles that have already been published elsewhere, so there is no single overarching argument or thesis. Additionally, George doesn’t spend a lot of time arguing the intellectual merits of specific Catholic teachings; many of his claims “on the merits” are followed by an endnote saying he has argued the matter more fully elsewhere. Therefore, this would not be a good book for someone hoping to engage with the reason-based arguments for specific Catholic moral teachings. Rather, the book is really about what changes legitimately can (or should) be made in the U.S., if the Catholic Church is correct on these issues. I found George’s comments regarding American law and public policy to be very thought-provoking, and the book as a whole is presented in a scholarly way. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already have a background in law, philosophy, theology, ethics, or another similar field. show less

Excellent natural law defense of the conjugal/traditional view of marriage. The self-satisfied, self-righteous, and self-deluded proponents of marriage revisionism, who confidently declare that there exist no cogent objections to their position, will quickly learn otherwise if they have the gumption to open this text.

Academic and scholarly look at the traditional or conjugal interpretation of marriage and revisions of that interpretation, and the implication of those changes on family, on society, on children, and the state. Not specifically about gay marriage, but the decreasing value of marriage by culture. Only briefly looks at religious arguments – mostly societal and psychological and other viewpoints. Current culture will not agree with this book, but it unemotionally and calmly presents show more arguments for traditional marriage and implications for change. You can see those implications all around us now. And it ain’t pretty! show less