Introduction: Reflections on the Current Status and Future of Christian Marriages

This article is the Editor's introduction to the special issue of the journal of Psychology and Theology on Current Issues in Christian Marriages. The current literature on religious marriages are used to understand the materials discussed in this journal issue. Future directions for the development of the scholarly basis and community interventions for Christian marriages are introduced. ********** If you've stepped into a local Christian bookstore lately and looked for a book on Christian marriage, you likely found a plethora of self-help materials from a variety of authors. Not only are self-help books available, but most cities in the United States have regular marriage enrichment courses that couples can join at local churches or community groups. With marriages struggling in large numbers, resources for improving or "saving" a marriage are extensive, particularly for Christian couples. The enthusiasm for prevention and interventions in marriages are broad-based and largely occur within church community contexts. For this special issue seven experts in Christian marriages were invited to submit answers from their extensive experiences with marriages along with three submitted articles on the topic of Christian marriage. The experts come from a variety of backgrounds offering us diverse perspectives on the problems and future of Christian marriages. The perspective of empirical researchers are discussed by Scott Stanley, Walter Schumm and Everett Worthington, Jr. Each of these are University-based researchers actively involved in contributing to the scholarship on religious marriages. Scott Stanley and Everett Worthington Jr. also have created Christian approaches to marital interventions that have had some empirical investigation (Stanley et al, 2001; Worthington et at., 1997). In contrast, Michael and Harriet McManus speak from their extensive ministry experiences on the front lines of Christian marriage intervention through the Marriage Savers program. Several experts have contributed significant books and theories of Christian marital interventions. Les and Leslie Parrotts' "Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts" (SYMBIS) program has been widely used among churches and Christian engaged and newlywed couples. Tim Clinton contributes to the field through his authorship of books and directorship of the American Association of Christian Counselors, which has a strong commitment towards supporting marriages. Finally, Keith Edwards offers his expertise in many years of training future marital therapists as a professor at Biola University. Current Research on Religious Marriages The current literature on religious marriages, and Christian marriages in particular, is sparse with almost no replication. The scholarly basis for the enthusiastic marital interventions borrows almost completely from the research on non-religious marriages. There have been several beacons of hope to increase scholarly production such as the special issue of the Journal of Family Psychology on religious marriages in 2001 which introduced several high-quality studies of religion and marriage, and the introduction of Marriage and Family: A Christian journal in 1997 specifically targeting Christian marriages. However, overall the production of scholarship on religious marriages is not increasing as a survey of articles on religious marriages from 1991-2001 found (Ripley et al., 2002). Does religiosity matter in marriage? The current literature on this topic is limited to a sparse and scattered collection of studies. In a review of the literature on Christian marriages, Ripley and Worthington (1998) found a small amount of literature on the topic of religious marriages in general but little to no research investigating what processes or aspects of the Christian faith might be protective of marriage. In addition, religious marital interventions had no empirical testing or basis. Since then, only a small handful of studies have investigated religious marital interventions with varying methodology (Ripley, Parrott, Worthington, Parrott, & Smith, 2000; Stanley et al. …