Course Description
This course offers a study of the history and theology of marriage and family life by tracing the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage from the Old Testament through the New Testament to the present. Special attention is given to recent Catholic Church documents regarding marriage and family life.
Course Objectives
· To examine and understand the scriptural underpinnings of marriage and the family as communion, covenant, sacrament and institution
· To see the family as a communion of persons vital for a culture of life
· To see marriage and the family in the light of a theological anthropology, that is, in the context of the image and likeness of the divine; special attention will focus on the theology of the body introduced by Pope John Paul II.
Perspectives (adapted from what my father provided to his students)
This is a theology course considering marriage and the family. As such, we will explore human relationships in the context of God and what God has revealed to be true concerning human beings. We shall look at particular human behaviors as a function of God’s created order.
Too often those studying human behavior take on the role of debunker, gloating in one’s ability to lift up the covers and peek underneath to see what may be there, or as one might say, “what’s really there!” Indeed, we all can be taught to skillfully use the same tools which artisans use to build a strong, complex and attractive building to instead render that building inoperative and ultimately destroy it. Frankly, I am not interested in turning out a bunch of cynics who now have the intellectual tools to peek into every relationship and scoff at the tenderness, faith and hope that keep it together – strong and powerful through all sorts of adversities and discouragement. I would rather teach you to use all the tools available to you to build and maintain productive, satisfying relationships, and happy, successful families.
Rather than give any more time and invest much more money in the study of deviance, we should focus on the normal state. Actually, it is easier – and less morbid – to study the happy family rather than the unhappy one. It was Leo Tolstoy who expressed it succinctly and accurately in 1875 in the opening statement of Anna Karenia:
This is a theology course considering marriage and the family. As such, we will explore human relationships in the context of God and what God has revealed to be true concerning human beings. We shall look at particular human behaviors as a function of God’s created order.
Too often those studying human behavior take on the role of debunker, gloating in one’s ability to lift up the covers and peek underneath to see what may be there, or as one might say, “what’s really there!” Indeed, we all can be taught to skillfully use the same tools which artisans use to build a strong, complex and attractive building to instead render that building inoperative and ultimately destroy it. Frankly, I am not interested in turning out a bunch of cynics who now have the intellectual tools to peek into every relationship and scoff at the tenderness, faith and hope that keep it together – strong and powerful through all sorts of adversities and discouragement. I would rather teach you to use all the tools available to you to build and maintain productive, satisfying relationships, and happy, successful families.
Rather than give any more time and invest much more money in the study of deviance, we should focus on the normal state. Actually, it is easier – and less morbid – to study the happy family rather than the unhappy one. It was Leo Tolstoy who expressed it succinctly and accurately in 1875 in the opening statement of Anna Karenia:
“All happy families are alike,
but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.”
but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.”
To be a good car driver, one does not go to the junk yard to study the anatomy of wrecks and the statistics on car failures and crashes. Rather, one would go to those who build cars and who understand the mechanisms which function interdependently in order for the car to operate properly. One also learns the laws (or norms) of the road so that the vehicle can be operated along with many other vehicles in order to experience mutual support, safety and success in the driving experience. In this course, we will seek to identify, understand, and use the mechanisms which make for healthy human relationships and happy families – not ideal or perfect families, for such do not exist except, perhaps, for a second or two!
Since I cannot say everything about Christian marriage and the family (principally because I do not know everything), nor do we have the time to say even all that I do know, I must make choices within these constraints as to the essential contents and indirection of this course. In this course I would like to make a valid positive statement about marriage and the family. In doing so, I will challenge the assumptions that material wealth and adherence to a basically hedonistic and secularistic world-view are necessary – or even supportive – to the kind of human intimacy that results in communion between the couple in a marriage and among the members of a family. Christian marriage is not only good and desirable but the very thing by which we understand our relationship with God, and the family that comes from such marriage is the model God Himself uses to teach us His intentions for the Church. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us:
“The Church is nothing other than ‘the family of God.’ ”
No comments:
Post a Comment