Theological Perspective

Early Christian Tradition &

Church Magisterium

St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas

Ecumenical Councils and Papal Encyclicals
 Early Christian Tradition
Ambiguities in their understanding
and teaching on marriage and
sexuality:

1.Sexual perversion in the Greco-

Roman Empire
2. The influence of some
spiritual movements of
early Christianity inspired by:

• Platonism (purity of
existence)
• Gnosticism ( spirit = good;
matter = evil)
• Stoicism ( subordinating all
emotions and passions)
 The Goods of Marriage in St. Augustine
Proles ( offspring ) as good is:
1. not merely the procreation of children,
2. but the receiving of them lovingly,
3. the nourishing of them humanely, and
 the educating of them religiously

Fides ( fidelity)
1. debt that the couple owe to one another
2. means not only exclusivity but also rendering the marital debt( act)
to the spouse
3. mutual service – sustaining each other’s weaknesses
Sacramentum ( sacrament )
1. refers to indissolubility
2. marital union as symbolized by the relationship between Christ and
the church
 St. Thomas Aquinas
1. De-sexualized Love and De-genetalized Love
2. Officium Naturae ( natural institution)
natural among human beings to enter into a lasting
relationship for procreation
principal end – offspring ; secondary end –partnership
3. Sacrament – Marriage
4. Marital Act
5. Fides
 Church Magisterium

1. Council of Trent (1545 and 1563)

• Marriage is a divine
institution (willed by God)
and was later elevated to the
level of the sacrament (grace
to help and strengthen the
couple in the their road to
holiness).
1. Council of Trent (1545 and 1563)
• The unity and indissolubility
of marriage (during the
reformation which sought
the polygamous relationship
and divorce)
• The power of the Church
over the sacrament of
marriage (to safeguard its
dignity and holiness).
• The requirement of the
canonical form as
determined by the Church
2. Pope Pius XI and Casti Conubii (1930)

• A landmark in the development of the

theology of marriage.

• A reaction to Anglican bishops – to

separate the procreative and unitive
ends of marriage by allowing
contraception

• Contraceptives, abortion, adultery,

divorce and eugenics

• FIDES – not only as mutual exclusion,

but also mutual inclusion (blending of
life)
3. Pope Pius XII and Personal Dimension
of Marriage

 Stressed on the inseparability

of procreation and the sexual
act – led to the rejection of
artificial insemination
4. Vatican II on the Partnership of Life
and Love (Gaudium et Spes)
 Sanctity of marriage and family
 The value of conjugal love and the
conjugal act
 “ Marital act is noble and worthy
insofar as it signifies and promotes
the mutual self-giving by which
spouses enrich each other with
joyful and thankful will (GS 50)
 The fruitfulness of marriage
 The conjugal act with respect to
human life
5. Pope Paul VI and the Sign-Values of
Marriage (Humanae Vitae)

1. The characteristic marks and demands of conjugal

love: human, total, faithful, exclusive, fecund (fruitful)
2. Mutual gift of self –in collaboration with God in the
generation and education of new lives (HV, 8)
3. Responsible parenthood (context where conjugal love
finds its fulfillment)
4. Conjugal act – not only produce something - but
saying something: act expresses and perfects married
love (unity)
6. Pope John Paul II’s Vision of Marriage
and Sexuality
1. Man and woman are called
to express the mysterious
“language” of the body in
all truth proper to it.
2. Conjugal love is a task and
mission – a love that goes
beyond union in one flesh
but leads to the forming of
one mind and heart (FC, 13)
and also to the vocation of
parenthood.