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Catholic Church Teaching on Marriage
Church Teaching
- This abbreviated list is based on "Marriage: Unique for a Reason," an initiative of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that provides a summary of church teaching along with links to relevant documents and statements.
N.b. In the list below, the sources are arranged chronologically. But it's important to realize that Church documents have different "weights" depending on their source and type. Generally, pastoral constitutions like Gaudium et Spes produced at the Second Vatican Council have the greatest weight because they represent the views of a council of all Catholic bishops. Close to these in authority are papal encyclicals (such as Paul VI's Humanae Vitae), and then apostolic exhortations (such as John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio) and letters (such as John Paul II's Mulieris Dignitatem).1 Other documents issued by various Vatican offices (Congregations, Pontifical Offices) and national councils of Catholic Bishop, are considered "lower" still because they represent clarifications or adaptations of the higher-level documents to new or local circumstances.
- For an important resource of biblical and theological reflection on Catholic Church teaching, see:
-
- Salzman, Todd A., Thomas M. Kelly and John J. O’Keefe, eds. Marriage in the Catholic Tradition: Scripture, Tradition, and Experience. New York: Crossroad, 2004.
-
- For an overview of marriage in the western tradition, see:
-
- Witte, John, Jr. From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition, Family, Religion, and Culture. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997.
| Date |
Document Name/Link |
Section |
How to Cite |
| 1965 |
Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World) |
Nos. 47-52 |
Catholic Church. Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1965. Online,http://www.vatican.va/archive/
hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/
documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_
gaudium-et-spes_en.html |
|
| 1968 |
Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) |
Nos. 8-12 |
Pope Paul VI. Humanae Vitae (Encyclical Letter, On Human Life). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1968. Online,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/
paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/
hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_
humanae-vitae_en.html. |
|
| 1981 |
Familiaris Consortio (On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World) |
All |
Pope John Paul II. Familiaris Consortio (Apostolic Exhortation, On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1981. Online,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/
john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/
documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_
familiaris-consortio_en.html. |
|
| 1983 |
Code of Canon Law |
1055–1165 (4.1.7) |
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Code of Canon Law. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983. Online, http://www.vatican.va/
archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM. |
|
| 1988 |
Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity of Women) |
Nos. 6-7 |
Pope John Paul II. Mulieris Dignitatem (Apostolic Letter, On the Dignity of Women). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1988. Online, http://www.vatican.va/
holy_father/
john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/
hf_jp-ii_apl_15081988_
mulieris-dignitatem_en.html. |
|
| 1993 |
Catechism of the Catholic Church |
Article 7 |
Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993. Online, http://www.vatican.va/
archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM#fonte. |
|
| 2000 |
Family, Marriage and "De Facto" Unions |
All |
Pontifical Council for the Family. Family, Marriage and "De Facto" Unions. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000. Online, http://www.vatican.va/
roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/
documents/rc_pc_family_doc_20001109
_de-facto-unions_en.html. |
|
| 2003 |
Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons |
All |
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003. Online, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
pontifical_councils/family/documents/
rc_pc_family_doc_20001109_de-facto-unions_en.html. |
|
| 2004 |
Letter on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World |
All |
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Letter on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004. Online, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
congregations/cfaith/documents/
rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_
collaboration_en.html. |
|
| 2004 |
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church |
Nos. 144-148, 209-254 |
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004. Online, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/
rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_
compendio-dott-soc_en.html. |
|
| 2009 |
Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan |
All |
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan. Washington, D.C.: USCCB, 2009. Online, http://www.usccb.org/
issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/love-and-life/upload/
pastoral-letter-marriage-love-and-life-in-the-divine-plan.pdf. |
Further Reading
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- Jewish Scriptures/Old Testament
-
- Collins, John J. "Marriage, Divorce, and Family in Second Temple Judaism." In Families in Ancient Israel (Leo G. Perdue, Joseph Blenkinsopp, John J. Collins and Carol Meyers; The Family, Religion, and Culture; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997) 104-162
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- Dreyer, Yolanda. "The 'Sanctity' of Marriage—An Archaeology of a Socio-religious Construct: Mythological Origins, Forms and Models." Hervormde teologiese Studies 64:1 (2008) 499-527. (ERes Research Materials)
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- Gottlieb, Clair. Varieties of Marriage in the Bible: And Their Analogues in the Ancient World New York: New York University Press, 1990.
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- Christian Scriptures/New Testament
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- Balch, David L. "Household Codes." In Greco-Roman Literature and the New Testament: Selected Forms and Genres (ed. David E. Aune; SBLSBS; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988) 25-50.
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- Balch, David L. and Carolyn Osiek, eds. Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2003.
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- Clark, Elizabeth A. "Antifamilial Tendencies in Ancient Christianity." Journal of the History of Sexuality 5:3 (1995) 356-80.
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- D'Angelo, Mary Rose. "Eusebeia: Roman Imperial Family Values and the Sexual Politics of 4 Maccabees and the Pastorals." Biblical Interpretation 11:2 (2003) 139-65.
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- Hunter, David G., trans. and ed. Marriage in the Early Church. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.
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- Keener, Craig S. Paul, Women and Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1992.
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- Martin, Clarice J. "The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: 'Free Slaves' and 'Subordinate Women.'" In Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (ed. Cain Hope Felder; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991) 206-231.
-
- Martin, Dale B. Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.
(chapters 5 and 7-9 are in ERes>Research Materials for SCTR 26)
-
- Miles, Carrie. "Patriarchy or Gender Equality? The Letter to the Ephesians on Submission, Headship, and Slavery." Dialogue 39:2 (2006) 70-95.
-
- Moxnes, Halvor, ed. Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor. New York: Routledge, 1997.
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- Osiek, Carolyn. "The Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33): A Problematic Wedding." Biblical Theology Bulletin 2:1 (2002) 29-39.
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- Osiek, Carolyn and David L. Balch. "Gender Roles, Marriage, and Celibacy." In Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (The Family, Religion, and Culture; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997) 103-155.
-
- Osiek, Carolyn and Margaret Y. MacDonald. "Ephesians 5 and the Politics of Marriage." In A Woman's Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006) 118-43.
-
- Rawson, Beryl. "'The Roman Family' in Recent Research: State of the Question." Biblical Interpretation 11:2 (2003) 119-38.
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- Standhartinger, Angela. "The Origins and Intention of the Household Code in the Letter to the Colossians." Journal for the Study of the New Testament 79 (2000) 117-30.
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- Wicker, Kathleen O'Brien. "First Century Marriage Ethics: A Comparative Study of the Household Codes and Plutarch's Conjugal Precepts." In No Famine in the Land: Studies in Honor of John L. McKenzie (ed. James W. Flanagan and Anita Weisbrod Robinson; Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1975) 141-53.
(ERes, Research Materials)
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- Winter, Bruce W. Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2003.
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- Marriage Today & the Same-Sex Marriage Debate
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- Sociological Studies
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- Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Viking, 2005.
-
- Montoro, J. "Social Values, Religiosity, and Marital Context." Sociology of Religion 54:4 (1993) 403-412.
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- Reno, R.R. "Whither Marriage? A Continuing Survey of Religion, Culture and Public Life." First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life 216 (2011) 3-7.
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- Waite, Linda J. and Evelyn Lehrer. "The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in
the United States: A Comparative Analysis." Population and Development
Review 29:2 (2003) 255-275.
-
-
- Theological Studies
-
- Anderson, Carl A. "The Family: Sign of Communion in the New Evangelization." In Called to Holiness and Communion: Vatican II on the Church (ed. Steven Boguslawski and Robert Fastiggi; Scranton, Pennsylvania: University of Scranton Press, 2009) 265-75.
(ERes, Research Materials)
-
- Farley, Margaret A. Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. New York: Continuum, 2008.
-
- Gaillardetz, Richard R. A Daring Promise: A Spirituality of Christian Marriage. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori/Triumph, 2007.
-
- Lawler, Michael G. Marriage and Sacrament: A Theology of Christian Marriage. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1993.
-
- Ruether, Rosemary Radford and Adrian Thatcher. Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family: Ruling Ideologies, Diverse Realities. Boston: Beacon, 2001.
-
- Salzman, Todd A. and Michael G. Lawler. The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008.
-
- Smith, Janet E. "The Sensus Fidelium and Humanae Vitae." In Called to Holiness and Communion: Vatican II on the Church (ed. Steven Boguslawski and Robert Fastiggi; Scranton, Pennsylvania: University of Scranton Press, 2009) 291-319.
(ERes, Research Materials)
-
-
- Same-sex Marriage Debate
-
- Boston, Rob. "Bias in Black and White: California’s Religion-based Ban on Same-sex Marriage Parallels Historic Battle over Interracial Unions, Say Legal Experts." Church & State 63:11 (2010) 244-6.
-
- Cahill, Sean. "The Disproportionate Impact of Antigay Family Policies on Black and Latino Same-sex Couple Households." Journal of African American Studies 13:3 (2009) 219-50.
(ERes, Research Materials)
-
- Jordan, Mark D. Authorizing Marriage? Canon, Tradition, and Critique in the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006.
-
- --------. Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusions of Christian Marriage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
-
- Sherkat, Darren E., Kylan Mattias de Vries and Stacia Creek. "Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage." Social Science Quarterly 91:1 (2010) 80-98.
-
- Stone, Ken. "Can Biblical Scholarship Shed Light on 'Same-sex Marriage' Debates?" Chicago Theological Seminary Register 91:3 (2001) 17-22.
(ERes, Research Materials)
-
- Wilson, Angelia R. "Feminism and Same-sex Marriage: Who Cares?" Politics & Gender 6:1 (2010) 134-45.
(ERes, Research Materials)
-
-
- Note:
Use the endnotes of each of these essays as further sources
for bibliography.
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1 For more on the relative weights of church documents, see Australian Catholic University, "Types of Church Documents," CatholicAustralia (n.d.), online, http://www.catholicaustralia.com.au/page.php?pg=churchdocs-typesofdocuments, 15 March 2012.
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