THE THEOLOGY OF MARRIAGE

What have been the theological teaching traditions of the Church on marriage? How have they developed? What lies in the future? Father Joseph Kerns now attempts to answer these and related questions in The Theology of Marriage. This unusual approach makes this more than just ""another"" book on sex and/or sanctity in marriage. Tracing the historical development (shown to be really slow), he draws on scattered and little thought of sources, gleaning only the important elements, to form a unified whole. The result is a competent, useful manual for all (husbands and wives, teachers, and priests) to ponder. Father Kerns demonstrates effectively that husbands and wives are not living in a state frowned on by God and that marriage is not merely tolerated by God. Rather, to points out, marriage was established so that they could live together more easily in a way to make it possible for both to become saints. There is little here in the order of ""how to,"" but the documentation and relating together of the teachings of the Church cannot help but give fuller motivation to men and woman to live in terms of the full reality of marriage as sacrament and vocation.