Originally a lecture delivered to the Consistory of Cardinals in 2014 at the request of Pope Francis, Walter Kasper's The Gospel of the Family is a “theological basis” (v) for the 2014 and 2015 meetings of the Synod of Bishops, which focus on pastoral care of families.

The first half of the book provides a rich theology of the family. Drawing on Genesis, Kasper notes that the church's teaching is rooted in natural law and, as such, is for all people. While subject to cultural variations and manifestations, natural law also provides “criteria for making judgments” (6) against such wrongs as violence in marriage, discrimination against women, prostitution, and economic conditions detrimental to family life. This natural law foundation also means that the family serves humanity in many ways, including caring for children and for creation, and functioning as a “living cell of society” (11). Kasper concludes this first half of the book by noting that the family is also a divine institution, serving as an eschatological vision of the heavenly wedding banquet and as a domestic church charged with forming family members in the faith.

The second half of the book focuses on the pastoral care of divorced and remarried Catholics. It is as rich as the first section. Kasper mines the tradition to indicate possibilities for divorced and remarried Catholics that are neither a “repeal” of church canons (26), a “cheapened sense of mercy” (26) that readily allows for remarriage, nor a “general solution for all cases” (27). Kasper recalls the possibility of annulment and remarriage through the internal forum noted in John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio 84. He argues against an expansion of annulments, as they become “a dishonest way by granting what, in reality, are divorces” (29). He challenges Pope Benedict XVI's call for spiritual communion for divorced and remarried Catholics in lieu of a sacramental communion by arguing that such an approach devalues the sacraments. Finally, Kasper returns to the early church “praxis of pastoral tolerance, clemency, and forbearance after a period of penance” (31) that allowed pastors to deal with the vagaries of marital situations.

As a theological work, The Gospel of the Family is excellent, worthy of the attention of scholars. It is an impressive overview of the church's theology and a compelling argument for changes in the pastoral care of divorced and remarried Catholics. The work, though, is intended to be an overture for the upcoming Synod of Bishops discussions on the family. As such, it risks being too narrow. By making half of his text about divorce and remarriage, Kasper is implicitly making it the issue for discussion. Abuse, economic conditions, infidelity, and countless other issues: these all receive at most only passing references, even though their effects on marriage are arguably as significant. Ideally, the bishops would not only take up Kasper's discussion of divorce and remarriage but also utilize his whole methodology. If they were to employ the same depth of research, analysis, and pastoral awareness for all issues facing marriage, so many of which were noted in Instrumentum Laboris, then the result of the Synod's meetings would be a pastoral approach that Pope Francis desires and that, more importantly, so many people need.