Dr. Robert George, Princeton professor of Philosophy, discusses why we must first answer the question of what marriage really is before we can begin to defend the institution of marriage.  He, and his co-authors, contend that marriage is a comprehensive union of mind and body, a conjugal union, ordered to family life, which unites a man and a woman as husband and wife.  They document the social value of applying this principle in law.

[powerpress]

You can find the book here

From the book description:

What Is Marriage? decisively answers common objections: that the historic view is rooted in bigotry, like laws forbidding interracial marriage; that it is callous to people’s needs; that it can’t show the harm of recognizing same-sex couplings, or the point of recognizing infertile ones; and that it treats a mere “social construct” as if it were natural, or an unreasoned religious view as if it were rational.

“With many countries on the verge of redefining a basic social institution, What Is Marriage? issues an urgent call for full deliberation of what is at stake. The authors make a compelling secular case for marriage as a partnership between a man and a woman, whose special status is based on society’s interest in the nurture and education of children.”
– Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University