Throughout history, views of marriage have evolved as societies change. Since the 6th century, the Roman Catholic Church has played a prominent role in thinking and developing our ideas about marriage and family. In October, the church sent out a document that included a questionnaire to its bishops around the world to find out what Catholics think about the "modern family." The Vatican sent out the document in preparation for the Synod of Bishops on the Family, which is slated for October 2014. Before we get the results, let’s review how society has reflected on marriage and family.
Historically, marriages often were strategic alliances between families. It was common for marriage to be between first and second cousins in order to strengthen family ties. Polygamy has been common throughout history and continues in many communities to this day.
Monogamy is also found throughout history, but in 1215, the Catholic Church decreed that partners had to publicly post notices of an impending marriage in a local parish to cut down on the number of invalid marriages. Until the 1500s, the Catholic Church accepted a couple’s word that they had exchanged marriage vows, with no witnesses or corroborating evidence needed. In the 1500s, with the rise in Protestantism, marriage became a civil matter rather than a sacrament. By 1639, states such as Massachusetts began requiring marriage licenses, and by the 19th century, marriage licenses were common in the United States.
Marriage through the ages
Here is a listing of the way in which marriage has been conceptualized over the years:
Arranged alliances: A strategic alliance between families.
Family ties: Keeping alliances within the family; the majority of all marriages throughout history were between first and second cousins.
Polygamy: A phenomenon that has been common throughout history.
Babies optional: In many early cultures, men could dissolve a marriage or take another wife if a woman was infertile. However, the early Christian church was a trailblazer in arguing that marriage was not contingent upon producing offspring.
Monogamy: This practice became the guiding principle for Western marriages between the 6th and 9th centuries because of the church.
Sacred vs. secular: In 1215, the Roman Catholic Church decreed that partners had to publicly post notices, or banns, of an impending marriage in a local parish in order to cut down on the number of invalid marriages. Until the 1500s, the church accepted a couple’s word that they had exchanged marriage vows, with no witnesses or corroborating evidence needed.
Civil marriage: By 1639, states such as Massachusetts began requiring marriage licenses and, by the 19th century, marriage licenses were common in the United States.
Romance: By the 1900s, mutual attraction became important.
Market economics: Families historically controlled access to inheritance of agricultural land, but with the spread of a market economy, it becomes possible for people to marry outside of this inheritance.
Women’s equality: About 50 years ago, in Western countries, women and men began to have equal rights and responsibilities. Instead of being about unique, gender-based roles, most partners conceived of their unions in terms of flexible divisions of labor, companionship, and mutual sexual attraction.
Same-sex marriages: One of the reasons for the stunningly rapid increase in acceptance of same-sex marriage is because heterosexuals have completely changed their notion that all marriages are between a man and a woman, notes Stephanie Coontz, Ph.D. "We now believe marriage is based on love, mutual sexual attraction, equality, and a flexible division of labor."
Source: Adapted from "Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage," (New York: Viking, 2005), by Dr. Coontz.
A sacred view of marriage
The Catholic position throughout history has been that marriage is one of the seven sacraments bestowed by Christ. This questionnaire is an attempt by the Vatican to understand more about "mixed or interreligious marriages; the single-parent family; polygamy; marriages with the consequent problem of a dowry, sometimes understood as the purchase price of the woman; the caste system; a culture of noncommitment and a presumption that the marriage bond can be temporary; forms of feminism hostile to the Church; migration and the reformulation of the very concept of the family; relativist pluralism in the conception of marriage; the influence of the media on popular culture in its understanding of marriage and family life; underlying trends of thought in legislative proposals which devalue the idea of permanence and faithfulness in the marriage covenant; an increase in the practice of surrogate motherhood (wombs for hire); and new interpretations of what is considered a human right."