Religion and Nonreligion in Same Sex Marriage Debates

In recent decades, questions about who makes up a family, the role of biology in defining sex, and the origins of human life have been the source of deep social, moral, and legal controversies. This book focuses on the debates around same-sex marriage in seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States) and uses these debates to examine the demarcations and zones of transition between the religious and the nonreligious. Specifically, in a context of moral and religious diversification resulting from, among other things, the decentering of Christianity, the book analyzes the narratives, languages, and meanings constructed in the debate over marriage as a legal institution. What imaginaries emerge in relation to sexuality or the family when the Christian foundation of marriage is put under scrutiny? One of the novelties of this book is the use of legal controversies as a lens to observe the work of religious and nonreligious narratives and the materialities they produce. Rather than prioritizing the description of the values or worldviews of the nonreligious, the proposal is to understand "nonreligion" as a product of discursive disputes and the narration of alternative imaginaries about marriage configurations.

Juan Marco Vaggione, National University of Córdoba; Paula Montero, University of São Paulo; Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa.