Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse. Adultery & Desertion by Barbara Roberts is a defense of biblical divorce for marital abuse, immorality, and abandonment. For full-disclosure, Roberts states upfront that she has been the victim of abuse and eventually divorced.
Roberts is quite clear that she is arguing for a distinction between "disciplinary divorce" - divorce because of abuse, adultery, and desertion which allows for the offended party to biblically remarry, and "treacherous divorce" - unbiblical divorce. She defines abuse, what the church and people involved should do in a situation of marital abuse, and provides a biblically-based defense of abuse as a sanctioned reason by Paul. Roberts spends most of the book on the issue of abuse since adultery and desertion have been well-served other places.
Most of her case centers around 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul allows a Christian to let an unbelieving spouse leave. Roberts argues that an abuser has become like an unbeliever and the believer can recognize that the offending spouse has already left. While Roberts gives a good argument and opened my eyes on a few passages, I feel her argument from 1 Corinthians 7 is wanting.
Roberts is quite thorough in her argumentation, similar in depth as to what one might find in Feinberg and Feinberg. She analyzes most of the important passages and gives some detailed commentary for them. Aesthetically, the print in this book is small and goes to the margins, so the text is a bit irritating to look at. That being said, this is a good volume to have if you'd like some interaction on what you think about biblical divorce and remarriage.
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