Marital Friendship and Covenantal Partnership: Comparative Models of Love and Marriage

Implicitly, religious laws of marriage and divorce reveal disparate visions. By comparing traditions, we discover common ends and divergent practices. In halakha Rashi and Maimonides explicate two models: marriage as loving friendship or as contractual negotiation. Sunni sharia reinforces male hegemony, while Protestants and Catholics debate the role of church and state.  Romantics and Postmoderns debate the role of passion and of scientific study in matchmaking.