Introduction

Divorce is one of the most tragic realities of sin. While it needs only one person to bring it about, its wounding effects splatter across a wide circle of innocent people, some of whom (think of the children) never fully recover from the hurt. Given its widespread occurrences both in society and in the church, one might reasonably expect that the Church would have already developed clear ideas about the subject as well as strategies for dealing with them when they occur. This, however, has not happened, and in many circles of the Christian community, the views held regarding divorce and divorcees can only be described as 'medieval.' At the same time the subject of divorce and remarriage has generated such a huge volume of literature it is impossible to be exhaustive in the space here. We hope, nonetheless, that the following articles cover enough grounds and representatively enough to help bring some clarity to what the Bible teaches and how the Church may and should deal with this vital and always painful subject.