For Better, For Worse

For Better, for Worse: The Ethics of Divorce after Marriage Equality examines the persistent notion that heterosexual marriage is in crisis in the United States. Natalie E. Williams proposes an ethical response that challenges the political and religious rhetoric of shame around divorce.

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For Better, for Worse discusses the shame narratives tied to divorce, rooted in Christian theologies of marriage and U.S. political landscapes of marriage rights and regulation. Using interdisciplinary methods, Natalie E. Williams investigates the current conflict between social practices that normalize divorce and religious and political rhetorical narratives that continue to shame those who divorce. Williams's work seeks to understand current attitudes and policies related to divorce and to shape Christian ethical responses that resist the use of shame, relying instead on commitments to truth-telling and a cultivation of “shamelessness” to support flourishing across a spectrum of family forms.