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[German Version] I. Old Testament and Judaism – II. New Testament and Early Christianity – III. Church History – IV. Sociology – V. Systematic Theology and Social Ethics – VI. Law – VII. Practical Theology I. Old Testament and Judaism In the Hebrew Bible, the dissolution of a marriage is the husband's unilateral act. It was originally executed through a divorce formula, pronounced orally (Hos 2:4), but Deut 24:1, 3 knows of the practice of preparing a written document. Later, Jewish law required both a written letter of divorce and authorization by a court. The early rabbis (like the Gospels) did not agree whether serious grounds from the husband's perspective were required in order to declare the divorce ( b. Git. 90a): The discussion revolves around the interpretation of 'erwat dābār (“indecency”) in Deut 24:1. The understanding that no serious grounds were necessary dominated. The reforms attributed to Rabbi Gershom Me'or ha-Golah (960–1028) made the agreement of the wife a necessary condition for divorce. The wife could also initiate a divorce for defined grounds (including subjective incompatibility), and rabbinic courts occasionally sought to compel the husband to grant her the divorce. The incidence of this practice of compulsion varied through history. The problem of the “bo…