When western missioners came to Africa they brought the christian message-which included, they thought, the Christian insistence on monogamy. But is monogamy necessarily the Christian view? ls it perhaps the product of white, Western history and culture? In this bold and important book the author carefully traces the constantly developing theology of marriage in western Christendom against the traditional place of polygamy in African tribal culture. As a result, Eugene Hillman poses questions which moral and pastoral theologians thought they had settled long ago, but which must be faced now with new courage and honesty. ls it self-evident, for example, that our contemporary Western concept of conjugal love is higher and more fully human than the broader concept of love in polygamous African families? Our idea of marriage is of a mutually fulfilling, exclusive relationship between two parties. But is this the only-is it even the best-foundation for a stable marriage and “happy” family? Further, we must ask with the author "if there is something profoundly wrong, even un-Christian, with the existing Church discipline regarding African polygamy”. The questions raised-and the answers given-by this missioner-theologian shed new light not only on the attitudes of the Christian Churches toward African polygamy, but on their current re-assessment of the full meaning of human sexuality as well.