![Amalfi - 7332](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Amalfi_-_7332.jpg)
From the earliest days of the
Christian faith
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popul ...
, Christians have honored ''holy matrimony'' (as Christian
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
s are referred to) as a divinely blessed, lifelong,
monogamous union between a man and a woman. According to the Episcopal
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
(1979), reflecting the traditional view, "Christian marriage is a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God," "intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture." However, while many Christians might agree with the traditional definition, the terminology and theological views of marriage have varied through time in different countries, and among Christian denominations.
Many
Protestants consider marriage to be a sacred institution or "holy ordinance" of God.
Roman Catholics and
Eastern Orthodox Christians
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
consider marriage as a
holy sacrament
There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those ...
or
sacred mystery
Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious belief and praxis. Sacred mysteries may be either:
# Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from the uninitiated.
# Belief ...
. However, there have been differing attitudes among denominations and individual Christians towards not only the concept of
Christian marriage
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...
, but also concerning
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
,
remarriage
Remarriage is a marriage that takes place after a previous marital union has ended, as through divorce or widowhood.
Some individuals are more likely to remarry than others; the likelihood can differ based on previous relationship status (e.g. div ...
,
gender roles
A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...
, family authority (the "
headship" of the husband), the
legal status of married women,
birth control,
marriageable age,
cousin marriage
A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies toda ...
,
marriage of in-laws,
interfaith marriage,
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, and
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...
, among other topics, so that in the 21st century there cannot be said to be a single, uniform, worldwide view of marriage among all who profess to be Christians.
Christian teaching has never held that marriage is necessary for everyone; for many centuries in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
, priestly or monastic
celibacy was valued as highly as, if not higher than, marriage. Christians who did not marry were expected to refrain from all
sexual activity
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...
, as were those who took
holy orders or
monastic vows.
In
some Western countries, a separate and
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
civil wedding ceremony is required for recognition by the state, while in other Western countries, couples must merely obtain a
marriage license
A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdictio ...
from a local government authority and can be married by Christian or other
clergy
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
if they are authorized by law to conduct weddings. In this case, the state recognizes the religious marriage as a
civil marriage
A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular.
History
Every country maintaining a pop ...
as well; and Christian couples married in this way have all the rights of civil marriage, including, for example,
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
, even if their
church forbids divorce.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, same-sex couples have been allowed to
marry civilly in many countries, and some Christian churches in those countries allow
religious marriage of same-sex couples, though others forbid it, along with
all other same-sex relationships.
Biblical foundations and history
Christians believe that marriage is considered in its ideal according to the purpose of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
. At the heart of God's design for marriage is companionship and intimacy.
The biblical picture of marriage expands into something much broader, with the husband and wife relationship illustrating the relationship between
Christ and the church.
It is also considered in its actual occurrence, sometimes involving failure. Therefore, the Bible speaks on the subject of divorce.
The New Testament recognizes a place for singleness.
Salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...
within Christianity is not dependent on the continuation of a biological lineage.
Old Testament
The Genesis creation account tells the story of when God instituted marriage. This took place after the creation of the first woman, Eve, from Adam, the first man.
Polygyny
Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women.
Incidence
Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...
, or men having multiple wives at once, is one of the most common marital arrangements represented in the Old Testament,
yet scholars doubt that it was common among average Israelites because of the wealth needed to practice it. Both the
biblical patriarchs and
kings of Israel
This article is an overview of the kings of the United Kingdom of Israel as well as those of its successor states and classical period kingdoms ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty and Herodian dynasty.
Kings of Ancient Israel and Judah
The He ...
are described as engaged in polygamous relationships. Despite the various polygynous relationships in the Bible, Old Testament scholar Peter Gentry has said that it does not mean that God condones polygyny. He also made note of the various problems that polygynous relationships present with the examples of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon in the Bible. Alternatively, this could be a case of
graded absolutism
Graded absolutism is a theory of moral absolutism (in Christian ethics) which resolves the objection to absolutism (i.e., in moral conflicts, we are obligated to opposites). Moral absolutism is the ethical view that certain actions are absolu ...
.
Betrothal
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
(''
erusin
''Erusin'' () is the Hebrew term for betrothal. In modern Hebrew, "erusin" means engagement, but this is not the historical meaning of the term, which is the first part of marriage (the second part being '' nissuin'').
Since the Middle Ages it is ...
''), which is merely a binding promise to get married, is distinct from marriage itself (''
nissu'in''), with the time between these events varying substantially.
Nonetheless, when a couple is betrothed, they are held accountable to the laws against adultery, like an officially married couple. From this, it is implied that a couple is considered to be married even they've only betrothed. Since a wife was regarded as property in biblical times, the betrothal (''erusin'') was effected simply by purchasing her from her father (or
guardian) (i.e. paying the
bride price
Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...
to the woman and her father);
the woman's consent is not explicitly required by any biblical law. Nonetheless, in one Biblical story,
Rebecca was asked whether she agreed to be married before the marriage took place.
Additionally, according to French
anthropologist Philippe Rospabé, the payment of the bride price does not entail the
purchase of a woman, as was thought in the early twentieth century. Instead, it is a purely symbolic gesture acknowledging (but never paying off) the husband's permanent debt to the wife's parents.
![Rembrandt Harmensz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_146.jpg)
Like the adjacent Arabic culture (
in the pre-Islamic period), the act of marriage appears mainly to have consisted of the groom fetching the bride, although among the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
the procession was a festive occasion, accompanied by music, dancing, and lights.
To celebrate the marriage, week-long feasts were sometimes held.
In Old Testament times, a wife was submissive to her husband, which may interpreted as Israelite society viewing wives as the
chattel of husbands.
The descriptions of the Bible suggest that she would be expected to perform tasks such as spinning, sewing, weaving, manufacture of clothing, fetching of water, baking of bread, and
animal husbandry. However, wives were usually looked after with care, and
bigamous
In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. I ...
men were expected to ensure that they give their first wife food, clothing, and sexual activity.
Since a wife was regarded as property, her husband was originally free to divorce her with little restriction, at any time.
A divorced couple could get back together unless the wife had married someone else after her divorce.
Jesus on marriage, divorce, and remarriage
![Christian-Marriage-Symbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Christian-Marriage-Symbol.svg)
The Bible clearly addresses marriage and divorce. Those in troubled marriages are encouraged to seek counseling and restoration because, according to some advocates of traditional marriage ethics, most divorces are neither necessary nor unavoidable.
[
In the gospels of both Matthew and Mark, Jesus appealed to God's will in creation. He builds upon the narratives in where male and female are created together] and for one another. Thus Jesus takes a firm stance on the permanence of marriage in the original will of God. This corresponds closely with the position of the Pharisee school of thought led by Shammai
Shammai (50 BCE – 30 CE, he, שַׁמַּאי, ''Šammaʾy'') was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah.
Shammai was the most eminent contemporary of Hill ...
, at the start of the first millennium,['']Gittin
Gittin (Hebrew: ) is a tractate of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and is part of the order of Nashim. The content of the tractate primarily deals with the legal provisions related to halakhic divorce, in particular, the laws relating to the ''Get'' ...
'' 9:10 with which Jesus would have been familiar. By contrast, Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonia ...
subsequently took the opposite view, espoused by Hillel, the leader of the other major Pharisee school of thought at the time; in Hillel's view, men were allowed to divorce their wives for any reason.
Some hold that marriage vows are unbreakable, so that even in the distressing circumstances in which a couple separates, they are still married from God's point of view. This is the Roman Catholic church's position, although occasionally the church will declare a marriage to be "null" (in other words, it never really was a marriage). William Barclay (1907-1978) has written:
Jesus brought together two passages from Genesis, reinforcing the basic position on marriage found in Jewish scripture. Thus, he implicitly emphasized that it is God-made ("God has joined together"), "male and female," lifelong ("let no one separate"), and monogamous ("a man...his wife").[Stagg, Frank.''New Testament Theology''. Broadman, 1962. ]
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
used the image of marriage and the family to teach the basics about the Kingdom of God. He inaugurated his ministry by blessing the wedding at Cana
The transformation of water into wine at the wedding at Cana (also called the marriage at Cana, wedding feast at Cana or marriage feast at Cana) is the first miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John.
In the Gospel account, Jesus Chris ...
. In the Sermon on the Mount he set forth a new commandment concerning marriage, teaching that lustful looking constitutes adultery
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
. He also superseded a Mosaic Law allowing divorce with his teaching that "...anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality (Gk. ''porneia''), causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery". Similar Pauline teachings are found in Corinthians 7. The exception clause—"except for..."—uses the Greek word ''porneia'' which is variously translated "fornication" (KJV), "marital unfaithfulness" (NIV 1984), "sexual immorality" (NIV 2011), "unchastity" (RSV), ''et al''. ''The KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon, KJV'' says ''porneia'' includes a variety of sexual "deviations" to include "illicit sexual intercourse, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, etc., sexual intercourse with close relatives...."
Theologian Frank Stagg says that manuscripts disagree as to the presence in the original text of the phrase "except for fornication". Stagg writes: "Divorce always represents failure...a deviation from God's will.... There is grace and redemption where there is contrition and repentance.... There is no clear authorization in the New Testament for remarriage after divorce." Stagg interprets the chief concern of Matthew 5 as being "to condemn the criminal act of the man who divorces an innocent wife.... Jesus was rebuking the husband who victimizes an innocent wife and thinks that he makes it right with her by giving her a divorce". He points out that Jesus refused to be trapped by the Pharisees into choosing between the strict and liberal positions on divorce as held at the time in Judaism. When they asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?" he answered by reaffirming God's will as stated in Genesis, that in marriage husband and wife are made "one flesh", and what God has united man must not separate.
There is no evidence that Jesus himself ever married, and considerable evidence that he remained single. In contrast to Judaism and many other traditions,[Fahlbusch, Erwin and Geoffrey Bromiley. ''The Encyclopedia of Christianity.'' Brill Academic Publishers (November 2000). .] he taught that there is a place for voluntary singleness in Christian service. He believed marriage could be a distraction from an urgent mission, that he was living in a time of crisis and urgency where the Kingdom of God would be established where there would be no marriage nor giving in marriage:
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked about the continuing state of marriage after death and he affirms that at the resurrection "people neither marry nor be given in marriage; they are like the angels in heaven.".
New Testament beyond the Gospels
The Apostle Paul quoted passages from Genesis almost verbatim in two of his New Testament books. He used marriage not only to describe the kingdom of God, as Jesus had done, but to define also the nature of the 1st-century Christian church. His theological view was a Christian development of the Old Testament parallel between marriage and the relationship between God and Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. He analogized the church as a bride and Christ as the bridegroom─drawing parallels between Christian marriage and the relationship between Christ and the Church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
.
There is no hint in the New Testament that Jesus was ever married, and no clear evidence that Paul was ever married. However, both Jesus and Paul seem to view marriage as a legitimate calling from God for Christians. Paul elevates singleness to that of the preferable position, but does offer a caveat suggesting this is "because of the impending crisis"—which could itself extend to present times (see also Pauline privilege
The Pauline privilege ( la, privilegium Paulinum) is the allowance by the Roman Catholic Church of the dissolution of marriage of two persons not baptized at the time the marriage occurred. The Pauline privilege is drawn from the apostle Paul' ...
). Paul's primary issue was that marriage adds concerns to one's life that detract from their ability to serve God without distraction.
Some scholars have speculated that Paul may have been a widower since prior to his conversion to Christianity he was a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: , ''synedrion'', 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was an assembly of either 23 or 71 elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), ...
, positions in which the social norm of the day required the men to be married. But it is just as likely that he never married at all.[Adams, Jay E. ''Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the Bible,'' Zondervan, 1986, ]
Yet, Paul acknowledges the mutuality of marital relations, and recognizes that his own singleness is "a particular gift from God" that others may not necessarily have. He writes: "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
indicates that bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
s, deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
s, and elders must be "husbands of one wife", and that women must have one husband. This is usually understood to legislate against polygamy rather than to require marriage:
In the Roman Age, female widows who did not remarry were considered more pure than those who did. Such widows were known as ''one man woman'' (''enos andros gune'') in the epistles of Paul. Paul writes:
Paul allowed widows to remarry. Paul says that only ''one-man women'' older than 60 years can make the list of Christian widows who did special tasks in the community, but that younger widows should remarry to hinder sin.
Marriage and early Church Fathers
Building on what they saw the example of Jesus and Paul advocating, some early Church Fathers placed less value on the family and saw celibacy and freedom from family ties as a preferable state.
Nicene Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
such as Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...
believed that marriage was a sacrament because it was a symbol used by Paul to express Christ's love of the Church. However, there was also an apocalyptic dimension in his teaching, and he was clear that if everybody stopped marrying and having children that would be an admirable thing; it would mean that the Kingdom of God would return all the sooner and the world would come to an end.[Armstrong, Karen. ''Gospel According to Women.'' Anchor Books, 1991. ] Such a view reflects the Manichaean past of Augustine.
While upholding the New Testament teaching that marriage is "honourable in all and the bed undefiled," Augustine believed that "yet, whenever it comes to the actual process of generation, the very embrace which is lawful and honourable cannot be effected without the ardour of lust...This is the carnal concupiscence, which, while it is no longer accounted sin in the regenerate, yet in no case happens to nature except from sin."
Both Tertullian
Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
and Gregory of Nyssa were church fathers who were married. They each stressed that the happiness of marriage was ultimately rooted in misery. They saw marriage as a state of bondage that could only be cured by celibacy. They wrote that at the very least, the virgin woman could expect release from the "governance of a husband and the chains of children."
Tertullian
Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
argued that second marriage, having been freed from the first by death,"will have to be termed no other than a species of fornication," partly based on the reasoning that this involves desiring to marry a woman out of sexual ardor, which a Christian convert is to avoid.
Also advocating celibacy and virginity as preferable alternatives to marriage, Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
wrote: "It is not disparaging wedlock to prefer virginity. No one can make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil." On First Corinthians
The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author ...
7:1 he reasons, "It is good, he says, for a man not to touch a woman. If it is good not to touch a woman, it is bad to touch one: for there is no opposite to goodness but badness. But if it be bad and the evil is pardoned, the reason for the concession is to prevent worse evil."
St. John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ...
wrote: "...virginity is better than marriage, however good.... Celibacy is...an imitation of the angels. Therefore, virginity is as much more honorable than marriage, as the angel is higher than man. But why do I say angel? Christ, Himself, is the glory of virginity."
Cyprian
Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Christ ...
, Bishop of Carthage, said that the first commandment given to men was to increase and multiply, but now that the earth was full there was no need to continue this process of multiplication.
This view of marriage was reflected in the lack of any formal liturgy formulated for marriage in the early Church. No special ceremonial was devised to celebrate Christian marriage—despite the fact that the Church had produced liturgies to celebrate the Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
, Baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
and Confirmation. It was not important for a couple to have their nuptials blessed by a priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
. People could marry by mutual agreement in the presence of witnesses.
At first, the old Roman pagan rite was used by Christians, although modified superficially. The first detailed account of a Christian wedding in the West dates from the 9th century
The 9th century was a period from 801 ( DCCCI) through 900 ( CM) in accordance with the Julian calendar.
The Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking raids occurred within this period. In the Middle East, the House of Wisdom was founded in Abba ...
. This system, known as Spousals, persisted after the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
.
Denominational beliefs and practice
Marriage and Christianity
Catholicism
Today all Christian denominations regard marriage as a sacred institution, a covenant. Roman Catholics consider it to be a sacrament. Marriage was officially recognized as a sacrament at the 1184 Council of Verona.[ Before then, no specific ritual was prescribed for celebrating a marriage: "Marriage vows did not have to be exchanged in a church, nor was a priest's presence required. A couple could exchange consent anywhere, anytime."][
In the decrees on marriage of the ]Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...
(twenty-fourth session from 1563), the validity of marriage was made dependent upon the wedding taking place before a priest and two witnesses,[ although the lack of a requirement for parental consent ended a debate that had proceeded from the 12th century.][ In the case of a divorce, the right of the innocent party to marry again was denied so long as the other party was alive, even if the other party had committed adultery.][
*
*
* ]
The Catholic Church allowed marriages to take place inside churches only starting with the 16th century, beforehand religious marriages happened on the porch of the church.
The Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
teaches that God himself is the author of the sacred institution of marriage, which is His way of showing love for those He created. Marriage is a divine institution that can never be broken, even if the husband or wife legally divorce in the civil courts; as long as they are both alive, the Church considers them bound together by God. Holy Matrimony is another name for sacramental marriage. Marriage is intended to be a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman. Committing themselves completely to each other, a Catholic husband and wife strive to sanctify each other, bring children into the world, and educate them in the Catholic way of life. Man and woman, although created differently from each other, complement each other. This complementarity draws them together in a mutually loving union.
The valid marriage of baptized Christians is one of the seven Roman Catholic sacraments
There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those ...
. The sacrament of marriage is the only sacrament that a priest does not administer directly; a priest, however, is the chief witness of the husband and wife's administration of the sacrament to each other at the wedding ceremony in a Catholic church.
The Roman Catholic Church views that Christ himself established the sacrament of marriage at the wedding feast of Cana; therefore, since it is a divine institution, neither the Church nor state can alter the basic meaning and structure of marriage. Husband and wife give themselves totally to each other in a union that lasts until death.
Priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
s are instructed that marriage is part of God's natural law and to support the couple if they do choose to marry. Today it is common for Roman Catholics to enter into a "mixed marriage" between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic. Couples entering into a mixed marriage are usually allowed to marry in a Catholic church provided their decision is of their own accord and they intend to remain together for life, to be faithful to each other, and to have children which are brought up in the Catholic faith.
In Roman Catholic teaching, marriage has two objectives: the good of the spouses themselves, and the procreation and education of children (1983 code of canon law, c.1055; 1994 catechism, par.2363). Hence "entering marriage with the intention of never having children is a grave wrong and more than likely grounds for an annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning al ...
." It is normal procedure for a priest to ask the prospective bride and groom about their plans to have children before officiating at their wedding. The Roman Catholic Church may refuse to marry anyone unwilling to have children, since procreation by "the marriage act" is a fundamental part of marriage.Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...
."Humanæ Vitæ." 1968-7-25. Accessed: 2009-7-22 Thus usage of any form of contraception
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
, in vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...
, or birth control besides natural family planning
Natural family planning (NFP) comprises the family planning methods approved by the Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations for both achieving and postponing or avoiding pregnancy. In accordance with the Church's teachings regarding s ...
is a grave offense against the sanctity of marriage and ultimately against God.
Protestantism
Purposes
Most Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
denominations hold marriage to be ordained by God for the union between a man and a woman. They see the primary purposes of this union as intimate companionship, rearing children and mutual support for both husband and wife to fulfill their life callings. Protestant Christian denominations consider marital sexual pleasure to be a gift of God, though they vary on their position on birth control, ranging from the acceptance of the use of contraception to only allowing natural family planning
Natural family planning (NFP) comprises the family planning methods approved by the Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations for both achieving and postponing or avoiding pregnancy. In accordance with the Church's teachings regarding s ...
to teaching Quiverfull
Quiverfull is a Christian theological position that sees large families as a blessing from God. It encourages procreation, abstaining from all forms of birth control, as well as natural family planning, and sterilization.
Some sources have referr ...
doctrine—that birth control is sinful and Christians should have large families. Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Protestants consider marriage a solemn covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
between wife, husband and God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
. Most view sexual relations as appropriate only within a marriage. Protestant Churches discourage divorce though the way it is addressed varies by denomination; for example, the Reformed Church in America permits divorce and remarriage, while connexions such as the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference forbid divorce except in the case of fornication and do not allow for remarriage in any circumstance.
Many Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
Christians teach that marriage is "God's gift and covenant intended to imitate God's covenant with humankind" that "Christians enter in their baptism." For example, the rite Rite may refer to:
* Ritual, an established ceremonious act
* Rite of passage, a ceremonious act associated with social transition
Religion
* Rite (Christianity), a sacred ritual or liturgical tradition in various Christian denominations
* Cath ...
used in the Free Methodist Church
The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.
The Free Methodist Church has members in over 100 ...
proclaims that marriage is "more than a legal contract, being a bond of union made in heaven, into which you enter discreetly and reverently."
Roles and responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities of husband and wives now vary considerably on a continuum between the long-held male dominant/female submission view and a shift toward equality (without sameness) of the woman and the man. There is considerable debate among many Christians today—not just Protestants—whether equality of husband and wife or male headship is the biblically ordained view, and even if it is biblically permissible. The divergent opinions fall into two main groups: Complementarians (who call for husband-headship and wife-submission) and Christian Egalitarians (who believe in full partnership equality in which couples can discover and negotiate roles and responsibilities in marriage).
There is no debate that Ephesians 5 presents a historically benevolent husband-headship/wife-submission model for marriage. The questions are (a) how these New Testament household codes are to be reconciled with the calls earlier in Chapter 5 (cf. verses 1, 18, 21) for mutual submission among all believers, and (b) the meaning of "head" in v.23. It is important to note that verse 22 contains no verb in the original manuscripts, which were also not divided into verses:
Ephesians 5 (NIV)
::1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love....
::18 be filled with the Spirit....
::21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
::22 Wives, '' ubmit yourselves' to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
::25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Eastern Orthodoxy
In the Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...
, marriage is treated as a Sacred Mystery
Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious belief and praxis. Sacred mysteries may be either:
# Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from the uninitiated.
# Belief ...
(sacrament), and as an ordination
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...
. It serves to unite a woman and a man in eternal union before God.[John Meyendorff, ''Marriage, an Orthodox Perspective'', YMCA Press, 1986; chapter: Old and New Testaments] It refers to the 1st centuries of the church, where spiritual union of spouses in the first sacramental marriage was eternal. Therefore, it is considered a martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
dom as each spouse learns to die to self for the sake of the other. Like all Mysteries, Orthodox marriage is more than just a celebration of something which already exists: it is the creation of something new, the imparting to the couple of the grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
which transforms them from a 'couple' into husband and wife within the Body of Christ.
Marriage is an icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
(image) of the relationship between Jesus and the Church. This is somewhat akin to the Old Testament prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
s' use of marriage as an analogy to describe the relationship between God and Israel. Marriage is the simplest, most basic unity of the church: a congregation
A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship.
Congregation may also refer to:
* Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship
*Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...
where "two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name." The home is considered a consecrated space (the ritual for the Blessing of a House is based upon that of the Consecration of a Church), and the husband and wife are considered the ministers
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...
of that congregation. However, they do not "perform" the Sacraments in the house church
A house church or home church is a label used to describe a group of Christians who regularly gather for worship in private homes. The group may be part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish, but some have been independent groups that see ...
; they "live" the Sacrament of Marriage. Because marriage is considered to be a pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
wherein the couple walk side by side toward the Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven may refer to:
Religious
* Kingdom of Heaven (Gospel of Matthew)
**Kingship and kingdom of God, or simply Kingdom of God, the phrase used in the other gospels
* Kingdom of Heaven (Daviesite), a schismatic sect, founded by Will ...
, marriage to a non-Orthodox partner is discouraged, though it may be permitted.
Unlike Western Christianity, Eastern Christians do not consider the sacramental aspect of the marriage to be conferred by the couple themselves. Rather, the marriage is conferred by the action of the Holy Spirit acting through the priest. Furthermore, no one besides a bishop or priest—not even a deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
—may perform the Sacred Mystery.
The external sign of the marriage is the placing of wedding crowns
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
upon the heads of the couple, and their sharing in a "Common Cup" of wine. Once crowned, the couple walk a circle three times in a ceremonial "dance" in the middle of the church, while the choir intones a joyous three-part antiphonal hymn, "Dance, Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
"
The sharing of the Common Cup symbolizes the transformation of their union from a common marriage into a sacred union. The wedding is usually performed after the Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy ( grc-gre, Θεία Λειτουργία, Theia Leitourgia) or Holy Liturgy is the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine Rite, developed from the Antiochene Rite of Christian liturgy which is that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of ...
at which the couple receives Holy Communion. Traditionally, the wedding couple would wear their wedding crowns for eight days, and there is a special prayer said by the priest at the removal of the crowns.
Divorce is discouraged. Sometimes out of ''economia'' (mercy) a marriage may be dissolved if there is no hope whatever for a marriage to fulfill even a semblance of its intended sacramental character. The standard formula for remarriage is that the Orthodox Church joyfully blesses the first marriage, merely performs the second, barely tolerates the third, and invariably forbids the fourth. "On the basis of the ideal of the first marriage as an image of the glory of God the question is which significance such a second marriage has and whether it can be regarded as Mysterion. Even though there are opinions (particularly in the west) which deny the sacramental character to the second marriage, in the orthodox literature almost consistently either a reduced or even a full sacramentality is attributed to it. The investigation of the second marriage rite shows that both positions affirming the sacramentality to a second marriage can be justified."
Early church texts forbid marriage between an Orthodox Christian and a heretic or schismatic (which would include all non-Orthodox Christians). Traditional Orthodox Christians forbid mixed marriages with other denominations. More liberal ones perform them, provided that the couple formally commit themselves to rearing their children in the Orthodox faith.
All people are called to celibacy—human beings are all born into virginity
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
, and Orthodox Christians are expected by Sacred Tradition
Sacred tradition is a theological term used in Christian theology. According to the theology of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches, sacred tradition is the foundation of the doctrinal and spiritual authority o ...
to remain in that state unless they are called into marriage and that call is sanctified.[Gregory (Grabbe), Bishop. ''The Sacramental Life: An Orthodox Christian Perspective.'' Liberty, Tenn: St. John of Kronstadt Press, 1986
] The church blesses two paths on the journey to salvation: monasticism and marriage. Mere celibacy, without the sanctification of monasticism, can fall into selfishness and tends to be regarded with disfavour by the Church.
Orthodox priests who serve in parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
es are usually married. They must marry prior to their ordination. If they marry after they are ordained they are not permitted to continue performing sacraments. If their wife dies, they are forbidden to remarry; if they do, they may no longer serve as a priest. A married man may be ordained as a priest or deacon. However, a priest or deacon is not permitted to enter into matrimony after ordination. Bishops must always be monks and are thus celibate. However, if a married priest is widowed, he may receive monastic tonsure and thus become eligible for the episcopate.
The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that marriage is an eternal union of spouses, but in Heaven there will not be a procreative bond of marriage.
Oriental Orthodoxy
The Non-Chalcedonian
Non-Chalcedonian Christianity comprises the branches of Christianity that do not accept theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Non-Chalcedonian denominations reject the Christological ...
Churches of Oriental Orthodoxy hold views almost identical to those of the ( Chalcedonian) Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...
. The Coptic Orthodox Church allows second marriages only in cases of adultery or death of spouse.
Non-Trinitarian denominations
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
In the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...
(LDS Church), celestial (or eternal) marriage is a covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
between a man, a woman, and God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
performed by a priesthood authority in a temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
of the church.[ Celestial marriage is intended to continue forever into the afterlife if the man and woman do not break their covenants.]["Chapter 38: Eternal Marriage"]
''Gospel Principles
''Gospel Principles'' is a book that sets out some of the basic doctrines and teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The book is published by the LDS Church and is provided to its members as a personal study guid ...
'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church, 2011). Thus, eternally married couples are often referred to as being " sealed" to each other. Sealed couples who keep their covenants are also promised to have their posterity sealed to them in the afterlife.[ (Thus, "families are forever" is a common phrase in the LDS Church.) A celestial marriage is considered a requirement for exaltation.][
In some countries, celestial marriages can be recognized as civil marriages; in other cases, couples are civilly married outside of the temple and are later sealed in a celestial marriage. (The church will no longer perform a celestial marriage for a couple unless they are first or simultaneously legally married.) The church encourages its members to be in good standing with it so that they may marry or be sealed in the temple. A celestial marriage is not annulled by a civil divorce: a "cancellation of a sealing" may be granted, but only by the ]First Presidency
Among many churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency (also known as the Quorum of the Presidency of the Church) is the highest presiding or governing body. Present-day denominations of the movement led by a First Presidency ...
, the highest authority in the church. Civil divorce and marriage outside the temple carries somewhat of a stigma in the Mormon culture; the church teaches that the "gospel of Jesus Christ—including repentance, forgiveness, integrity, and love—provides the remedy for conflict in marriage." Regarding marriage and divorce, the church instructs its leaders: "No priesthood officer is to counsel a person whom to marry. Nor should he counsel a person to divorce his or her spouse. Those decisions must originate and remain with the individual. When a marriage ends in divorce, or if a husband and wife separate, they should always receive counseling from Church leaders."
In church temples, members of the LDS Church perform vicarious celestial marriages for deceased couples who were legally married.
New Church (or Swedenborgian Church)
The New Church
The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) is any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed as a new religious group, influenced by the writings of scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).
Swedenborgian or ...
teaches that marital love (or "conjugial love") is "the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion" because the love shared between a husband and a wife is the source of all peace and joy. Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
coined the term "conjugial" (rather than the more usual adjective in reference to marital union, "conjugal") to describe the special love experienced by married partners. When a husband and wife work together to build their marriage on earth, that marriage continues after the deaths of their bodies and they live as angels
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...
in heaven into eternity. Swedenborg claimed to have spoken with angelic couples who had been married for thousands of years. Those who never married in the natural world will, if they wish, find a spouse in heaven.
Jehovah's Witnesses
The Jehovah's Witnesses view marriage to be a permanent arrangement with the only possible exception being adultery. Divorce is strongly discouraged even when adultery is committed since the wronged spouse is free to forgive the unfaithful one. There are provisions for a domestic separation in the event of "failure to provide for one's household" and domestic violence, or spiritual resistance on the part of a partner. Even in such situations though divorce would be considered grounds for loss of privileges in the congregation. Remarrying after death or a proper divorce is permitted. Marriage is the only situation where any type of sexual interaction is acceptable, and even then certain restrictions apply to acts such as oral and anal sex. Married persons who are known to commit such acts may in fact lose privileges in the congregation as they are supposed to be setting a good example to the congregation.
Interdenominational marriage
In Christianity, an interdenominational marriage
Interdenominational marriage, sometimes called an inter-sect marriage or ecumenical marriage, is marriage between spouses professing a different denomination of same religion.
Interdenominational marriages are distinguished from interfaith ma ...
(also known as an ecumenical marriage) is a marriage between two baptized Christians who belong to different Christian denominations, e.g. a wedding between a Lutheran Christian man and a Catholic Christian woman. Nearly all Christian denominations permit interdenominational marriages.
In Methodism
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...
, ¶81 of the 2014 ''Discipline'' of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection
The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (AWMC), originally the Wesleyan Methodist Church (Allegheny Conference), and also known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church (WMC), is a Methodist denomination within the conservative holiness movement prim ...
, states with regard to interdenominational marriages: "We do not prohibit our people from marrying persons who are not of our connection, provided such persons have the form and are seeking the power of godliness; but we are determined to discourage their marrying persons who do not come up to this description."
The Catholic Church recognizes as sacramental, (1) the marriages between two baptized Protestants or between two baptized Orthodox Christians, as well as (2) marriages between baptized non-Catholic Christians and Catholic Christians, although in the latter case, consent from the diocesan bishop must be obtained, with this being termed "permission to enter into a mixed marriage". To illustrate (1), for example, "if two Lutherans marry in the Lutheran Church in the presence of a Lutheran minister, the Catholic Church recognizes this as a valid sacrament of marriage." Weddings in which both parties are Catholic Christians are ordinarily held in a Catholic church, while weddings in which one party is a Catholic Christian and the other party is a non-Catholic Christian can be held in a Catholic church or a non-Catholic Christian church.
Interreligious marriage
In Christianity, an interfaith marriage is a marriage between a baptized Christian and a non-baptized person, e.g. a wedding between a Christian man and Jewish woman.
In the Presbyterian Church (USA), the local church congregation is tasked with supporting and including an interfaith couple with one being a baptized Presbyterian Christian and the other being a non-Christian, in the life of the Church, "help ngparents make and live by commitments about the spiritual nurture of their children", and being inclusive of the children of the interfaith couple. The pastor is to be available to help and counsel the interfaith couple in their life journey.
Although the Catholic Church recognizes as natural marriage
Natural marriage is the name given in Catholic canon law to the covenant "by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation ...
s weddings between two non-Christians or those between a Catholic Christian and a non-Christian, these are not considered to be sacramental, and in the latter case, the Catholic Christian must seek permission from his/her bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
for the marriage to occur; this permission is known as "dispensation from disparity of cult
Disparity of cult, sometimes called disparity of worship (''Disparitas Cultus''), is a diriment impediment in Roman Catholic canon law: a reason why a marriage cannot be validly contracted without a dispensation, stemming from one person being ...
".
In Methodist Christianity, the 2014 ''Discipline'' of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection
The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (AWMC), originally the Wesleyan Methodist Church (Allegheny Conference), and also known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church (WMC), is a Methodist denomination within the conservative holiness movement prim ...
discourages interfaith marriages, stating "Many Christians have married unconverted persons. This has produced bad effects; they have either been hindered for life, or have turned back to perdition." Though the United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...
authorizes its clergy to preside at interfaith marriages, it notes that Corinthians 6 has been interpreted "as at least an ideal if not an absolute ban on such nterfaithmarriages as an issue of scriptural faithfulness, if not as an issue of Christian survival." At the same time, for those already in an interfaith marriage (including cases in which there is a non-Christian couple and one party converts to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Different Christian denominations may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies initiation into their community of believe ...
after marriage), the Church notes that Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
"addresses persons married to unbelievers and encourages them to stay married."
Same-sex marriage
Anglican denominations such as the Episcopal Church in United States the Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, the Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
in Scotland and mainline Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...
, the United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
, the Metropolitan Community Church
The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), is an international LGBT-affirming mainline Protestant Christian denomination. There are 222 member congregations in 3 ...
, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
, the United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
Origins and history
The United Reformed Church resulte ...
in United Kingdom, the Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
, the Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical as ...
, the Church of Iceland
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland ( is, Hin evangelíska lúterska kirkja), also called the National Church ( is, Þjóðkirkjan), is the officially established Christian church in Iceland. The church professes the Lutheran faith an ...
, the Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...
, the Church of Denmark
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark ( da, Folkekirken, literally: "The People's Church" or unofficially da, Den danske folkekirke, literally: "The Danish People's Church"; kl, ...
, the Church of Norway, the United Protestant Church in Belgium
The United Protestant Church in Belgium (VPKB/EPUB) is a minority Christian church in Belgium, where the majority of the population is Catholic. It is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The name of the church in Dutch is ''Verenig ...
, the Protestant Church in Baden, the , the Evangelical Church of Bremen
The Evangelical Church of Bremen (german: Bremische Evangelische Kirche) is a United Protestant member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.
The seat of the church is in Bremen. It is a full member of ...
, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick (german: Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche in Braunschweig) is a Lutheran church in the German states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
The seat of the Landesbischof (bishop) is Wolfenbüttel. ...
, the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck
The Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck (german: Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck; EKKW) is a United Protestant church body in former Hesse-Cassel and the Waldeck part of the former Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont.
Constitut ...
, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (german: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers) is a Lutheran church body ''(Landeskirche)'' in the northern German state of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremerhaven covering the territory of th ...
, the Church of Lippe
The Church of Lippe (german: link=no, Lippische Landeskirche) is a Reformed (Calvinist) member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany that covers what used to be the Principality of Lippe.
Seat of the church administration is Detmold. The ...
, the , the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland
Protestant Church in the Rhineland (german: Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland; EKiR) is a United Protestant church body in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Hesse (Wetzlar). This is actually th ...
, the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland) is a Lutheran member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD). It was established on 27 May 2012 ...
the Protestant Church of the Palatinate
Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (german: Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz (Protestantische Landeskirche)) is a United Protestant church in parts of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, endorsing both Lutheran and Calvinist o ...
, the Evangelical Church of Westphalia
The Protestant Church of Westphalia (german: Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen, EKvW) is a United Protestant church body in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The seat of the praeses (german: Präses, the head of the church) is Bielefeld. The EKvW emerged ...
, the Mennonite Church in the Netherlands
The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands, or ''Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit'', is a body of Mennonite Christians in the Netherlands.
The Mennonites (or Mennisten or Doopsgezinden) are named for Menno Simons (1496–1561), a Dutch Roman Cathol ...
the United Protestant Church of France
The United Protestant Church of France (french: Église protestante unie de France) is the main and largest Protestant church in France, created in 2013 through the unification of the Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church o ...
, the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany
The Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany is the German member body of the Union of Utrecht of Old Catholic Churches, which follow Ultrajectine theology. It is permitted to levy the German church tax on its members. Its episcopal see is ...
, the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is an Old Catholic denomination in Switzerland. This denomination is part of the Union of Utrecht (Old Catholic).
Recent developments
In 1871 the Zürich Catholic community planned to build a chu ...
, some Reformed churches in Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches for example the Reformed Church of Aargau The Reformed Church of Aargau or Reformierte Landeskirche des Kantons Aargau is a Reformed state cantonal church in Aargau, Switzerland. It was founded in 1803, and according to the 2004 statistics the Aargau Reformed Church had 76 Presbyteries ...
, the Protestant Church of Geneva
The Protestant Church of Geneva (EPG, french: link=no, Église protestante de Genève) is an organization of congregations in the Canton of Geneva. It was founded in 1536 during the Protestant Reformation. It was the state church of Geneva from i ...
or the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich
The Evangelical-Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich is a Reformed State Church in Zürich. In 2004 it had 533,000 members and 179 parishes with 900 house fellowships and 520 ordained clergy. Official language is German. It is a member of the ...
and some non-trinitarian denominations such as the Unity Church
Unity, known informally as Unity Church, is an organization founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889. It grew out of Transcendentalism and became part of the New Thought movement. Unity is known for its '' Daily Word'' devotional publi ...
and the Unitarians, some international evangelical denominations, such as the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
The Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB) is a Baptist Christian denomination. The headquarters is in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.
History
The Association was founded by a dozen churches of the American Baptist Churches US ...
and Affirming Pentecostal Church International
Affirming Pentecostal Church International (APCI) is a Pentecostal Christian denomination, denomination. It is currently the largest LGBT affirming Pentecostal organization in the World.
History
It was founded December 5, 2010 in Indianapolis, I ...
perform weddings between same-sex couples.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxima ...
, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, some Lutheran and united churches in Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (e.g. Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in German ...
, some Reformed churches in Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands do not administer sacramental marriage to same-sex couples, but blesses same-sex unions through the use of a specific liturgy.
The Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, the Orthodox Christian Church, and other more conservative Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
denominations do not perform or recognize same-sex marriage because they do not consider it as marriage at all, and considering any homosexual sexual activity to be sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
ful. The Global Anglican Future Conference
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...
(GAFCON) consisting of the Church of Nigeria
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership (not by attendance), after the Church of England. it gives its membership as "over 18 mi ...
, Anglican Church of Kenya
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is a province of the Anglican Communion, and it is composed by 41 dioceses. The current Primate and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit. The Anglican Church of Kenya claims 5 million total members. Accordi ...
, Anglican Church of Tanzania
The Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT) is a province of the Anglican Communion based in Dodoma. It consists of 28 dioceses (27 on the Tanzanian mainland, and 1 on Zanzibar) headed by their respective bishops. It seceded from the Province of East A ...
, Rwanda and Uganda; Anglican Church of South America
The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
Formed in 198 ...
, Australia, parts of England, Canada, USA and Church of India through the Jerusalem Conference clearly asserted "the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy."
Location of the wedding
With respect to religion, historic Christian belief emphasizes that Christian weddings should occur in a church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
as Christian marriage should begin where one also starts their faith journey (Christians receive the sacrament of baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
in church in the presence of their congregation
A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship.
Congregation may also refer to:
* Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship
*Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...
). Catholic Christian weddings must "take place in a church building" as holy matrimony is a sacrament; sacraments normatively occur in the presence of Christ in the house of God, and "members of the faith community hould bepresent to witness the event and provide support and encouragement for those celebrating the sacrament." Bishops never grant permission "to those requesting to be married in a garden, on the beach, or some other place outside of the church" and a dispensation is only granted "in extraordinary circumstances (for example, if a bride or groom is ill or disabled and unable to come to the church)." Marriage in the church, for Christians, is seen as contributing to the fruit of the newlywed couple regularly attending church each Lord's Day
The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed ...
and raising children in the faith.
Theological views
Christians seek to uphold the seriousness of wedding vows. Yet, they respond with compassion to deep hurts by recognizing that divorce, though less than the ideal, is sometimes necessary to relieve one partner of intolerable hardship, unfaithfulness or desertion. While the voice of God had said, "I hate divorce", some authorities believe the divorce rate in the church is nearly comparable to that of the culture at large.[Amy Desai, J.D]
How Should a Christian View Marriage and Divorce?
Accessed 15 Jan. 2018
Christians today hold three competing views as to what is the biblically ordained relationship between husband and wife. These views range from Christian egalitarianism that interprets the New Testament as teaching complete equality of authority and responsibility between the man and woman in marriage, all the way to Patriarchy that calls for a "return to complete patriarchy" in which relationships are based on male-dominant power and authority in marriage:[
1. Christian Egalitarians believe in an equal partnership of the wife and husband with neither being designated as the leader in the marriage or family. Instead, the wife and husband share a fully equal partnership in both their marriage and in the family. Its proponents teach "the fundamental biblical principle of the equality of all human beings before God".
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."]
According to this principle, there can be no moral or theological justification for permanently granting or denying status, privilege, or prerogative solely on the basis of a person's race, class, or gender.[Groothuis, Rebecca M. "Sexuality, Spirituality and Feminist Religion"]
Accessed 8 Mar 2013
2. Complementarianism, Christian Complementarians prescribe husband-headship—a male-led hierarchy. This view's core beliefs call for a husband's "loving, humble headship" and the wife's "intelligent, willing submission" to his headship. They believe women have "different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage".[Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). Core Beliefs. Accessed 5 March 2013]
3. Biblical patriarchy
Biblical patriarchy, also known as Christian patriarchy, is a set of beliefs in Reformed Evangelical Protestant Christianity concerning gender relations and their manifestations in institutions, including marriage, the family, and the home. It ...
, though not at all popular among mainstream Christians, prescribes a strict male-dominant hierarchy. This view makes the husband the ruler over his wife and his household. Their organization's first tenet is that "God reveals Himself as masculine, not feminine. God is the eternal Father and the eternal Son, the Holy Spirit is also addressed as He, and Jesus Christ is a male". They consider the husband-father to be sovereign over his household—the family leader, provider, and protector. They call for a wife to be obedient to her head (her husband).
Some Christian authorities permit the practice polygamy (specifically polygyny
Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women.
Incidence
Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...
), but this practice, besides being illegal in Western cultures, is now considered to be out of the Christian mainstream in most parts of the globe; the Lutheran World Federation
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...
hosted a regional conference in Africa, in which the acceptance of polygamists and their wives into full membership by the Lutheran Church in Liberia was defended as being permissible. While the Lutheran Church in Liberia permits men to retain their wives if they married them prior to being received into the Church, it does not permit polygamists who have become Christians to marry more wives after they have received the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
Family authority and responsibilities
Much of the dispute hinges on how one interprets the New Testament household code
The New Testament Household Codes (in German nicknamed ''Haustafeln''), also known as New Testament Domestic Codes, consist of instructions in New Testament writings associated with the apostles Paul and Peter to pairs of Christian people within ...
''(Haustafel)'', a term coined by Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
, which has as its main focus hierarchical relationships between three pairs of social classes that were controlled by Roman law: husbands/wives, parents/children, and masters/slaves. The apostolic teachings, with variations, that constitute what has been termed the "household code" occurs in four epistles (letters) by the Apostle Paul and in 1 Peter.
In the early Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
, long before the time of Christ, the law of '' manus'' along with the concept of ''patria potestas
The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (plural ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his ext ...
'' (rule of the fathers), gave the husband nearly absolute autocratic power over his wife, children, and slaves, including the power of life and death. In practice, the extreme form of this right was seldom exercised, and it was eventually limited by law.
Theologian Frank Stagg[Stagg, Frank. ''New Testament Theology''. Broadman Press, 1962. ] finds the basic tenets of the code in Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's discussion of the household in Book 1 of ''Politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
'' and in Philo
Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.
Philo's de ...
's ''Hypothetica 7.14''. Serious study of the New Testament Household Code
The New Testament Household Codes (in German nicknamed ''Haustafeln''), also known as New Testament Domestic Codes, consist of instructions in New Testament writings associated with the apostles Paul and Peter to pairs of Christian people within ...
''(Haustafel)'' began with Martin Dilbelius in 1913, with a wide range of studies since then. In a Tübingen
Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...
dissertation, by James E. Crouch concludes that the early Christians found in Hellenistic Judaism a code which they adapted and Christianized.
The Staggs believe the several occurrences of the New Testament household code
The New Testament Household Codes (in German nicknamed ''Haustafeln''), also known as New Testament Domestic Codes, consist of instructions in New Testament writings associated with the apostles Paul and Peter to pairs of Christian people within ...
in the Bible were intended to meet the needs for ''order'' within the churches and in the society of the day. They maintain that the New Testament household code is an attempt by Paul and Peter to Christianize the concept of family relationships for Roman citizens who had become followers of Christ. The Staggs write that there is some suggestion in scripture that because Paul had taught that they had newly found freedom "in Christ", wives, children, and slaves were taking improper advantage of the ''Haustafel'' both in the home and the church.
"The form of the code stressing reciprocal social duties is traced to Judaism's own Oriental background, with its strong moral/ethical demand but also with a low view of woman.... At bottom is probably to be seen the perennial tension between freedom and order.... What mattered to (Paul) was 'a new creation' and 'in Christ' there is 'not any Jew not Greek, not any slave nor free, not any male and female'.[
Two of these Christianized codes are found in Ephesians 5 (which contains the phrases "husband is the head of the wife" and "wives, submit to your husband") and in Colossians 3, which instructs wives to subordinate themselves to their husbands.
The importance of the meaning of "head" as used by the Apostle Paul is pivotal in the conflict between the Complementarian position and the Egalitarian view. The word Paul used for "head", transliterated from Greek, is ''kephalē''. Today's English word "cephalic" ( ) stems from the Greek ''kephalē'' and means "of or relating to the head; or located on, in, or near the head." A thorough concordance search by Catherine Kroeger shows that the most frequent use of "head" ''(kephalē)'' in the New Testament is to refer to "the anatomical head of a body". She found that its second most frequent use in the New Testament was to convey the metaphorical sense of "source". Other Egalitarian authors such as Margaret Howe agree with Kroeger, writing that "The word 'head' must be understood not as 'ruler' but as 'source.
Wayne Grudem criticizes commonly rendering ''kephalē'' in those same passages only to mean "source", and argues that it denotes "authoritative head" in such texts as Corinthians 11. They interpret that verse to mean that God the father is the authoritative head over the ]Son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
, and in turn Jesus is the authoritative head over the church, not simply its source. By extension, they then conclude that in marriage and in the church, the man is the authoritative head over the woman.
Another potential way to define the word "head", and hence the relationship between husband and wife as found in the Bible, is through the example given in the surrounding context in which the word is found. In that context the husband and wife are compared to Christ and his church. The context seems to imply an authority structure based on a man sacrificing himself for his wife, as Christ did for the church; a love-based authority structure, where submission is not required but freely given based on the care given to the wife.
Some biblical references on this subject are debated depending on one's school of theology. The historical grammatical method is a hermeneutic technique that strives to uncover the meaning of the text by taking into account not just the grammatical words, but also the syntactical aspects, the cultural and historical background, and the literary genre. Thus references to a patriarchal Biblical culture may or may not be relevant to other societies. What is believed to be a timeless truth to one person or denomination may be considered a cultural norm or minor opinion to another.
Egalitarian view
Christian Egalitarians (from the French word "égal" meaning "equal") believe that Christian marriage is intended to be a marriage without any hierarchy—a full and equal partnership between the wife and husband. They emphasize that nowhere in the New Testament is there a requirement for a wife to ''obey'' her husband. While "obey" was introduced into marriage vows for much of the church during the Middle Ages, its only New Testament support is found in Peter 3, with that only being by implication from Sarah's obedience to Abraham. Scriptures such as Galatians 3:28 state that in Christ, right relationships are restored and in him, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female."[Christians for Biblical Equality. "Men, Women and Biblical Equality". Ltd. CBE on the Web at "Biblical Equality", 1989. ww.cbeinternational.org/?q=content/men-women-and-biblical-equality.Accessed 5 Mar 2013]
Christian Egalitarians interpret scripture to mean that God intended spouses to practice ''mutual submission'', each in equality with the other. The phrase "mutual submission" comes from a verse in Ephesians 5 which precedes advice for the three domestic relationships of the day, including slavery. It reads, "Submit to one another ('mutual submission') out of reverence for Christ", wives to husbands, children to parents, and slaves to their master. Christian Egalitarians believe that full partnership in marriage is the most biblical view, producing the most intimate, wholesome, and reciprocally fulfilling marriages.
The Christian Egalitarian view of marriage asserts that gender, in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer's gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home. It does not imply that women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
and men
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...
are identical or undifferentiated, but affirms that God designed men and women to complement and benefit one another.[Groothuis, Rebecca Merrill. "The Bible and Gender Equality." ww.cbeinternational.org Christians for Biblical Equality Web site/ref> A foundational belief of Christian Egalitarians is that the husband and wife are created equally and are ordained of God to "become one", a biblical principle first ordained by God in Genesis 2, reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19 and Mark 10, and by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5. Therefore, they see that "oneness" as pointing to ]gender equality
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
in marriage. They believe the biblical model for Christian marriages is therefore for the spouses to share equal responsibility within the family—not one over the other nor one under the other.
David Dykes, theologian, author, and pastor of a 15,000-member Baptist church, sermonized that "When you are in Christ, you have full equality with all other believers". In a sermon he entitled "The Ground Is Level at the Foot of the Cross", he said that some theologians have called one particular Bible verse the Christian '' Magna Carta''. The Bible verse reads: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Acknowledging the differences between men and women, Dykes writes that "in Christ, these differences don't define who we are. The only category that really matters in the world is whether you are in Christ. At the cross, Jesus destroyed all the made-made barriers of hostility:" ethnicity, social status, and gender.
Those of the egalitarian persuasion point to the biblical instruction that all Christian believers, irrespective of gender, are to submit or be subject "to one another in the fear of God" or "out of reverence for Christ". Gilbert Bilezikian
Gilbert Bilezikian (born June 26, 1927, in Paris, France) is an American Christian writer, professor, and lecturer. Along with Bill Hybels, Bilezikian is a co-founder of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, "one of Ameri ...
writes that in the highly debated Ephesians 5 passage, the verb "to be subject" or "to be submitted" appears in verse 21 which he describes as serving as a "hinge" between two different sections. The first section consists of verses 18–20, verse 21 is the connection between the two, and the second section consists of verses 22–33.[Bilezikian, Gilbert. ''Beyond Sex Roles.'' Baker Book House, 1989. ] When discussion begins at verse 22 in Ephesians 5, Paul appears to be reaffirming a chain of command principle within the family. However,
Advocates of Christian egalitarianism believe that this model has firm biblical support:
*The word translated "help" or "helper" in Genesis 2 until quite recently was generally understood to subordinate a wife to her husband. The KJV translates it as God saying, "I will make a help meet for him". The first distortion was extrabiblical: the noun "help" and the adjective "meet" traditionally have been combined into a new noun, "helpmate". Thus, wives were often referred to as her husband's "helpmate". Next, from the word "help" were drawn inferences of authority/subjection distinctions between men and women. "Helper" was taken to mean that husband was boss and wife his domestic. It is now realized that of the 21 times the Hebrew word 'ezer is used in the Old Testament, in eight of those instances the term clearly means "savior"—another word for Jehovah God. For example, Psalm 33 says "the Lord...is our help ('ezer) and shield". Psalm 121 reads "I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help ('ezer) come from? My help ('ezer) comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." That Hebrew word is not used in the Bible with reference to any subordinate person such a servant.[ Thus, forms of 'ezer in the Hebrew Bible can mean either "to save" or "to be strong" or have the idea of power and strength.
*The "two becoming one" concept, first cited in Genesis 2, was quoted by Jesus in his teachings on marriage and recorded almost identically in the gospels of both Matthew and Mark. In those passages Jesus reemphasized the concept by adding a divine postscript to the Genesis passage: "So, they are no longer two, but one" (NIV).
*The Apostle Paul also quoted the Genesis 2:24 passage in Ephesians 5] Describing it as a "profound mystery", he analogizes it to "Christ and the church". Then Paul states that every husband must love his wife as he loves himself.
*Jesus actually ''forbids'' any hierarchy of relationships in Christian relationships. All three synoptic gospels record virtually the same teaching of Jesus, adding to its apparent significance:
*The Apostle Paul calls on husbands and wives to be subject ''to each other'' out of reverence for Christ—mutual submission.
*As persons, husband and wife are of equal value. There is no priority of one spouse over the other. In truth, they are one. Bible scholar Frank Stagg and Classicist Evelyn Stagg
Evelyn Stagg (''née'' Evelyn Owen) (July 9, 1914 – February 28, 2011) was a trailblazer for Southern Baptist women in ministry.Allen, Bob. "Evelyn Stagg, role model for Baptist women in ministry, dies at 96." ''Associated Baptist Press.'' May 20 ...
write that husband-wife equality produces the most intimate, wholesome and mutually fulfilling marriages. They conclude that the Apostle Paul's statement, sometimes called the "Magna Carta of Humanity" and recorded in Galatians 3, applies to all Christian relationships, including Christian marriage: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is ''neither male nor female'': for you are all ''one'' in Christ Jesus."
*The Apostle Peter calls husbands and wives "joint heirs of the grace of life" and cautions a husband who is not considerate to his wife and does not treat her with respect that his prayers will be hindered.
*Each of the six times Aquila and his wife Priscilla are mentioned by name in the New Testament, they are listed together. Their order of appearance alternates, with Aquila mentioned first in the first, third and fifth mentions, and Priscilla (Prisca) first in the other three. Some revisions of the Bible put Priscilla first, instead of Aquila, in Acts 18:26, following the Vulgate and a few Greek texts. Some scholars suggest that Priscilla was the head of the family unit.
*Among spouses, it is possible to submit without love, but it is impossible to love without submitting mutually to each other.
The egalitarian paradigm leaves it up to the couple to decide who is responsible for what task or function in the home. Such decisions should be made rationally and wisely, not based on gender or tradition. Examples of a couple's decision logic might include:
*which spouse is ''more competent'' for a particular task or function;
*which has ''better access'' to it;
*or if they decide both are similarly competent and have comparable access, they might make the decision based on who ''prefers'' that function or task, or conversely, which of them ''dislikes it less'' than the other. The egalitarian view holds that decisions about managing family responsibilities are made rationally through cooperation and negotiation, not on the basis of tradition (e.g., "man's work" or "woman's" work), nor any other irrelevant or irrational basis.
Complementarian view
Complementarians hold to a hierarchical structure between husband and wife. They believe men and women have different gender-specific roles that allow each to ''complement'' the other, hence the designation "Complementarians". The Complementarian view of marriage holds that while the husband and wife are of equal worth before God, husbands and wives are given different functions and responsibilities by God that are based on gender, and that male leadership is biblically ordained so that the husband is always the senior authority figure. They state they "observe with deep concern" "accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the intelligent, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the loving, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives". They believe "the Bible presents a clear chain of authority—above all authority and power is God; God is the head of Christ. Then in descending order, Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman, and parents are the head of their children." Complementarians teach that God intended men to lead their wives as "heads" of the family. Wayne Grudem
Wayne A. Grudem (born 1948) is a New Testament scholar turned theologian, seminary professor, and author. He co-founded the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and served as the general editor of the ''ESV Study Bible''.
Life
Grudem was bo ...
, in an article that interprets the "mutual submission" of Ephesians 5 as being hierarchical, writes that it means "being considerate of one another, and caring for one another’s needs, and being thoughtful of one another, and sacrificing for one another."
Scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 11:3: "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God", (KJV) is understood as meaning the wife is to be subject to her husband, if not unconditionally.
According to Complementarian authors John Piper, Wayne Grudem
Wayne A. Grudem (born 1948) is a New Testament scholar turned theologian, seminary professor, and author. He co-founded the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and served as the general editor of the ''ESV Study Bible''.
Life
Grudem was bo ...
, and others, historically, but to a significantly lesser extent in most of Christianity today, the predominant position in both Catholicism and conservative Protestantism places the male as the "head" in the home and in the church. They hold that women are commanded to be in subjection to male leadership, with a wife being obedient to her head (husband), based upon Old Testament precepts and principles. This view holds that, "God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in the Church."
Grudem also acknowledges exceptions to the submission of wives to husbands where moral issues are involved. Rather than unconditional obedience, Complementarian authors such as Piper and Grudem are careful to caution that a wife's submission should never cause her to "follow her husband into sin."
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
teaching on the role of women includes that of Pope Leo XIII in his 1880 encyclical ''Arcanum'' which states:
Though each of their churches is autonomous and self-governed, the official position of the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest Protestant denomination in the United States) is:
Biblical patriarchy
The patriarchal model of marriage is clearly the oldest one. It characterized the theological understanding of most Old Testament writers. It mandates the supremacy, at times the ultimate domination, of the husband-father in the family. In the first century Roman Empire, in the time of Jesus, Paul, and Peter, it was the law of the land and gave the husband absolute authority over his wife, children, and slaves—even the power of life or death. It subordinates all women.
Biblical patriarchy is similar to Complementarianism but with differences of degree and emphasis. Biblical patriarchists carry the husband-headship model considerably further and with more militancy. While Complementarians also hold to exclusively male leadership in both the home and the church, Biblical patriarchy extends that exclusion to the civic sphere as well, so that women should not be civil leaders and indeed should not have careers outside the home.
Patriarchy is based on authoritarianism—complete obedience or subjection to male authority as opposed to individual freedom. Patriarchy gives preeminence to the male in essentially all matters of religion and culture. It explicitly deprives all women of social, political, and economic rights. The marriage relationship simply reinforced this dominance of women by men, providing religious, cultural, and legal structures that clearly favor patriarchy to the exclusion of even basic human dignity for wives.[
Historically in classical patriarchy, the wives and children were always legally dependent upon the father, as were the slaves and other servants. It was the way of life throughout most of the Old Testament, religiously, legally, and culturally. However, it was not unique to Hebrew thought. With only minor variations, it characterized virtually every pagan culture of that day—including all Pre-Christian doctrine and practice.][
While Scripture allowed this approach in Old Testament times, nowhere does the Bible ordain it. In the Hebrew nation, patriarchy seems to have evolved as an expression of male dominance and supremacy, and of a double standard that prevailed throughout much of the Old Testament. Its contemporary advocates insist that it is the only biblically valid model for marriage today. They argue that it was established at Creation, and thus is a firm, unalterable decree of God about the relative positions of men and women.]
Biblical patriarchists see what they describe as a crisis of this era being what they term to be a systematic attack on the "timeless truths of biblical patriarchy". They believe such an attack includes the movement to "subvert the biblical model of the family, and redefine the very meaning of fatherhood and motherhood, masculinity, femininity, and the parent and child relationship."[ Arguing from the biblical presentation of God revealing himself "as masculine, not feminine", they believe God ordained distinct gender roles for man and woman as part of the created order. They say "Adam’s headship over Eve was established at the beginning, before sin entered the world". Their view is that the male has God-given authority and mandate to direct "his" household in paths of obedience to God. They refer to man's "dominion" beginning within the home, and a man's qualification to lead and ability to lead well in the public square is based upon his prior success in ''ruling his household''.][
Thus, William Einwechter refers to the traditional Complementarian view as "two-point Complementarianism" (male leadership in the family and church), and regards the biblical patriarchy view as "three-point" or "full" complementarianism (male leadership in family, church ''and society'').]
The patriarchists teach that "the woman was created as a helper to her husband, as the bearer of children, and as a "keeper at home", concluding that the God-ordained and proper sphere of dominion for a wife is the household. Biblical patriarchists consider that "faithfulness to Christ requires that (Biblical patriarchy) be believed, taught, and lived". They claim that the "man is...the image and glory of God in terms of authority, while the woman is the glory of man". They teach that a wife is to be ''obedient'' to her "head" (husband), based upon Old Testament teachings and models.
Other views
See Christian feminism
Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributio ...
See also
* Biblical patriarchy
Biblical patriarchy, also known as Christian patriarchy, is a set of beliefs in Reformed Evangelical Protestant Christianity concerning gender relations and their manifestations in institutions, including marriage, the family, and the home. It ...
* Christian egalitarianism
* Christian views of women
* Christian views on divorce Christian views on divorce find their basis both in biblical sources, as well as texts authored by the Church Fathers of the early Christian Church, who were unanimous in the teaching regarding the issue.
According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus ...
* Complementarianism
* Christian views on birth control
* Gender roles in Christianity
* Interfaith marriage
* Marriage in the Catholic Church
Marriage in the Catholic Church, also known as holy matrimony, is the "covenant by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procre ...
* Monogamy in Christianity
* New Testament household codes
* Paul the Apostle and women
* Polygamy in Christianity
* Quaker wedding
Quaker weddings are the traditional ceremony of marriage within the Religious Society of Friends. Quaker weddings are conducted in a similar fashion to regular Quaker meetings for worship, primarily in silence and without an officiant or a rigi ...
* Quiverfull
Quiverfull is a Christian theological position that sees large families as a blessing from God. It encourages procreation, abstaining from all forms of birth control, as well as natural family planning, and sterilization.
Some sources have referr ...
* Wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
References
Further reading
* Andreas J. Köstenberger, David W. Jones (2010). ''God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation''. Crossway Books. . .
External links
The Sacrament of Matrimony
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Marriage and religion
Marriage in Christianity
From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have honored ''holy matrimony'' (as Christian marriages are referred to) as a divinely blessed, lifelong, monogamous union between a man and a woman. According to the Episcopal Book of C ...
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