Marriage and Mulieris Dignitatem.

• Author: Coughlin, John J.

It is a great pleasure to be with you here at The Catholic University of America on this twentieth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem. (1) My assigned task is to speak about the theology and canon law of marriage in light of the apostolic letter. With this focus in mind, it seems helpful to recall that one of the document's central themes is the universal call to holiness lived out through sacramental marriage or virginity. In the first part of my remarks this morning, I shall discuss St. Augustine's teaching on the relation between marriage and virginity. In the second part, I shall mention several prominent features of Mulieris Dignitatem, including the complementarity of marriage and virginity, the personalist interpretation of Ephesians 5, and the Eucharistic understanding of marriage and virginity. I shall discuss these features in relation to the Augustinian tradition.

1. THE AUGUSTINIAN TRADITION ON MARRIAGE

   St. Augustine provided the classical description of the goods of marriage as fidelity (fides), children (proles), and sacrament (sacramentum). (2) According to Augustine, fidelity is the understanding and intention of the married couple to exercise exclusive sexual faithfulness to one another. As the fruit of fidelity, parents accept children in love, nurturing them in affection, and educating them in religion. The sacrament constitutes a symbol of the permanence and stability in marriage. (3)

   1. The Debate Between St. Jerome and Jovian

      In describing the goodness of marriage, St. Augustine did not set out to afford a systematic theological and canonical treatment of the subject. Rather, his teaching on marriage was formed through his experience as a bishop writing to address pastoral situations in Northern Africa. During the end of the fourth century, Augustine faced a challenge raised by an ascetical movement in the Church that had Manichean overtones. (4) Some full-fledged Manicheans, the "Elect," adopted the ascetical practice of sexual continence. The Manicheans thought that sexual reproduction is a trick employed by an evil deity to trap the human spirit in a physical body. (5) This view was in conflict with the Christian interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its doctrine about the fundamental goodness of creation. (6) As Christian asceticism developed, St. Jerome entered into a debate with his fellow Christian, Jovian, over the nature of sexual reproduction and marriage. (7) Jerome taught the superiority of virginity over marriage, (8) and he urged married persons to end marital relations and to live a chaste asceticism. (9) In extolling the goodness of marriage, Jovian argued that the married state is equal in status to virginity. He insisted that the married person who adheres to Christian belief could be just as virtuous as the Christian virgin. He accused Jerome and other Christian ascetics of tending toward a Manichean denigration of the human body and sexual reproduction. (10)

   2. St. Augustine's Middle Course

      As Bishop of Hippo, Augustine attempted to steer a middle course in the debate between Jerome and Jovian. Augustine believed that the procreation of children is the "primary, natural, and legitimate purpose of marriage." (11) At the same time, he concurred with Jerome that virginity and the chastity of continence are ways of Christian ascetical practice superior to the chastity of marriage. (12) Marriage is, according to Augustine, a cure for concupiscence. (13) In Augustine's view, sexual intercourse even between married persons always involves a degree of corruption, but sexual intercourse for the purpose of procreation is not sinful. (14) Although Augustine describes a faithful marriage between Christians as chaste, he thought that such chastity is not as good as the chastity of continence. (15)

      At the same time, in The Good of Marriage, he wrote, "[T]he marriage of male and female is something good.... And this seems not to me to be merely on account of the begetting of children, but also on account of the natural society itself in a difference of sex." (16) As a bishop, Augustine feared that the unity of the Christian community might be threatened if sexual abstinence became a line of demarcation between morally perfect and less perfect Christians. (17) This pastoral crisis early in his episcopate led Augustine to confirm the fundamental position of St. Jerome even as he developed a doctrine of creation that attested to the goodness of the human body and sexuality. (18) Specifically, he identified procreation of children (proles) and the natural companionship of the spouses (fides) as aspects of the goodness of marriage.

   3. Response to Jovian

      In response to Jovian, Augustine found it necessary to deny that he himself was a Manichean. (19) Prior to his conversion to Christianity, Augustine had in fact enlisted in a lower rank of the Manicheans as an "Auditor." (20) Auditors were permitted to have sexual relations as long as they practiced certain contraceptive techniques. (21) In his Confessions, Augustine reports that during the time of his Manichean belief, he lived in fidelity with a woman for fifteen years who in the first year of the relationship bore their only child, a son, Adeodatus. (22) He mentions other sexual relationships that were apparently childless. (23) After his conversion, Augustine adopted a pro-reproductive and anti-contraceptive attitude toward sexual relations in marriage. At the same time, Augustine exhibited a suspicion of sexual relations. Based upon his experiences as revealed in the Confessions, Augustine adopted the view of St. Paul that a conflict between spirit and flesh is characteristic of human existence. (24) In his work On Continence, which was composed sometime after AD 412, Augustine rejected the negative perspective of the Manicheans on creation and the human body, as well as the ethical consequences derived from it. (25) Contrary to the ascetical practice of the Manichean Elect, who refrained from sexual relations on account of the evil of the human body, Augustine held that continence should be understood as God's gift and should be practiced out of love for God. (26) He also rejected the Manichean position that some persons are compelled to commit sexual sins because the power of evil is stronger than the power of God. (27) In the face of the deterministic strain of Manicheanism, Augustine emphasized the role played by free will. (28)

   4. Tempered by Pelagian Doctrine

      Augustine's emphasis on the goodness of marriage and free will was tempered by the conflict with the Pelagian heresy, which became the focus of his writing for much of the last two decades of his life. (29) Pelagius was alarmed by the number of professed Christians who excused their sinfulness on account of the weakness of human nature as a result of original sin. According to Pelagius and his followers,

      God created human nature as good and endowed it with the intellectual and volitional capacity to live virtuously. (30) Augustine responded that human nature, although created good, had been corrupted through original sin. He believed that original sin is passed on through sexual intercourse and that sinful lust is a primary manifestation of original sin. (31) As a result of original sin, all persons are born into a world doomed and unable to choose the good without special divine assistance. Sin, for Augustine, is not just the consequence of inadequate teaching or bad habit, but rather the result of the darkness of the soul, the effects of which remain even after the cleansing of Baptism. The mysterium iniquitatis, Augustine observed, cannot be explained through the use of human reason alone. (32)

      Augustine interpreted feelings of shame about the sexual organs and the desire for privacy during intercourse that remain even after Baptism for married Christians as indications of the continuing effects of original sin. (33) However, he continued to affirm the fundamental goodness of creation and sexual intercourse. Referring to Adam and Eve, Augustine wrote:

      God's blessing on their marriage, with the command to...