K problematice stejnopohlavních vztahů: Manželství a partnerství

The article is based on the differentiation between marriage as the institutional dimension and partnership as the relational dimension of an intimate relation of two people. While marriage is a historically changing and multiform social institution, an intimate partnership is a phenomenon permanently present in the history. Based on the modern deeper understanding of human nature including homosexuality as an “other normal”, the article shows that the category of partnership can and should be opened to same-sex relations as well. These – as any other intimate relationships – cannot be reduced to sexual dimension only. And precisely therefore, it is not possible to apply any biblical mentions of same-sex intercourse to this debate, because the biblical testimonies do not know homosexuality in the contemporary meaning and speak only about same-sex intercourse without any relational framing. From the perspective of today’s responsible theological stance, there is thus no argument that would hinder to support the same-sex relations and their formal institutional framing also by the churches.