Theology Of Marriage
Nick Lombardo February 3, 2015
Theology of Marriage
Professor Dart
Exam 1 Essay
“The secret to a happy marriage is if you can be at peace with someone within four walls, if you are content because the one you love is near to you, either upstairs or downstairs, or in the same room, and you feel that warmth that you don't find very often, then that is what love is all about.” This quote by Bruce Forsyth does a great job of summing up what marriage is all about, peace and love. There are many marriages out there in current day that do not last long, but for those that chose the right person, marriage has many beautiful characteristics that make it so special to one’s heart. Marriage, however, was thought of differently with some similarities in the past and had a few perspectives I will be discussing. The four perspectives in the western society were spiritual, social, contractual, and natural. The first perspective is spiritual; in the book it defines this as “regarding marriage as a sacramental or covenantal association, subject to the creed, cult, and canons of the church community” (Page 2). This deals with the actual love two people share together when they get married. This was meant to be something extremely special to one another in their culture. The love these people share is not just supposed to be with one another, but in a way be spread across the whole community by building a family because if the couple are good people, then it is expected they will be reproducing respectful children in the future. The relationship they hold should be the ultimate friendship where nothing is hidden just love is being shared and minds are feeling complete. The culture they lived in made it feel necessary to give back to the community and church in any way they could, and building a respectful family was an important part. The second perspective is social which is defined as “treating marriage as a social estate, subject to the expectations and exactions of
Theology of Marriage
Professor Dart
Exam 1 Essay
“The secret to a happy marriage is if you can be at peace with someone within four walls, if you are content because the one you love is near to you, either upstairs or downstairs, or in the same room, and you feel that warmth that you don't find very often, then that is what love is all about.” This quote by Bruce Forsyth does a great job of summing up what marriage is all about, peace and love. There are many marriages out there in current day that do not last long, but for those that chose the right person, marriage has many beautiful characteristics that make it so special to one’s heart. Marriage, however, was thought of differently with some similarities in the past and had a few perspectives I will be discussing. The four perspectives in the western society were spiritual, social, contractual, and natural. The first perspective is spiritual; in the book it defines this as “regarding marriage as a sacramental or covenantal association, subject to the creed, cult, and canons of the church community” (Page 2). This deals with the actual love two people share together when they get married. This was meant to be something extremely special to one another in their culture. The love these people share is not just supposed to be with one another, but in a way be spread across the whole community by building a family because if the couple are good people, then it is expected they will be reproducing respectful children in the future. The relationship they hold should be the ultimate friendship where nothing is hidden just love is being shared and minds are feeling complete. The culture they lived in made it feel necessary to give back to the community and church in any way they could, and building a respectful family was an important part. The second perspective is social which is defined as “treating marriage as a social estate, subject to the expectations and exactions of