The Spouse as Divine Encounter: Renewing the Spiritual Understanding of Marriage in Roman Catholic Theology

Abstract

In the recent Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis states that the Church must reflect further on God’s action within the marriage rite. (art. 75) Perhaps what is required, instead, is further reflection on the presence of God within the marriage relationship. Although it has been the subject of theological reflection throughout most of Church history, there is a lack of sacramental understanding of marriage within Roman Catholic theology. Theological reflection on marriage through the 20th-century has tended to focus on the ethical and social questions surrounding family life while neglecting the sacramentality of the spouses’ relationship. Without negating the insights gained through such reflection, this paper presents a means of expanding marriage theology by employing a sacramental lens. The current paper opens with a survey of modern magisterial documents (dating from 1880 to the present), exploring the ways in which the nature of marriage is presented in each. Following that, further documents will be examined as examples of marriage theology being appropriated as a basis for moral theology, thus reinforcing the link between marriage and questions of sexual ethics. Writings of early 20th-century Russian Orthodox writers will be presented as a more sacramental model of marriage theology. Finally, foundational texts from the marriage spirituality movement in the Roman Catholic Church will serve as examples of how a sacramental understanding of the spouses’ relationship may be drawn out from traditional Catholic marriage theology.