The Politics of Conjugal Love: A Baptismal and Trinitarian Approach to Headship and Submission - Paperback

by Conor Sweeney (Author), Brian T. Trainor (Author), Margaret Pargeter (Foreword by)

Does the New Testament teach that a wife must submit to her husband as head? If so, does it have a lasting value beyond the cultural milieu in which it was first articulated? The Politics of Conjugal Love takes a fresh approach to this classic issue in theological anthropology, paying specific attention to the role of theological hermeneutics in its interpretation. Conor Sweeney and Brian T. Trainor contend that both "subordinationist" and "anti-subordinationist" readings of headship and submission miss the mark. Their alternative is a baptismally specified trinitarian reading in which headship and submission appear as modes intrinsic to both life in Christ and the love proper to the highest mode of trinitarian love.

Author Biography

Conor Sweeney is author of Sacramental Presence after Heidegger: Onto-theology, Sacraments, and the Mother's Smile (2015) and Abiding the Long Defeat: How to Evangelize Like a Hobbit in a Disenchanted Age (2018).



For most of his academic career, the late Dr. Brian T. Trainor worked as Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. He later served as Senior Lecturer and Head of Postgraduate Studies in Humanities at Tabor Adelaide. Dr. Trainor published several books and international journal articles sharing his intellectual insights in the areas of philosophy, theology, and political theory--often nuanced by his compelling advocacy for traditional Christian marriage and family.