The Covenant Theology of Marriage. In the fall of 1981, I gave a copy of the revised title, Birth Control and the Marriage Covenant, to Pope John Paul II and to others in the Vatican, including then-Monsignor Carlo Caffara at the John Paul II Institute. Msgr. Caffara and I discussed the covenant theology, and he seemed genuinely interested.
Sometime in the mid-Eighties, the Hahns read the book and credit it for helping them to accept Catholic teaching on birth control when they were still Protestants. It was the concept of the renewal of the marriage covenant and its connection with the reception of Holy Communion that was decisive for Scott; I don’t know about Kimberly, but she read the book and accepted the teaching before he did.
In 1994, Pope John Paul II incorporated the renewal of the marriage covenant concept into his Letter to Families. “In the conjugal act, husband and wife are called to confirm in a responsible way the mutual gift of self which they have made to each other in the marriage covenant” (n. 12, para. 12, his emphasis). That concept was not in his Theology of the Body concluded ten years previously.
Christopher West expounds considerably on the Theology of the Body (TOB). When we heard his lectures here in Cincinnati some years ago, he concluded his replies to questions by saying, “Just remember, the marriage act ought to be a renewal of your wedding vows.” Again, the “renewal of the marriage vows or marriage covenant” does not appear in the text of Pope John Paul II in the TOB. Despite that, West has found that this very brief statement of the covenant theology of the marriage act is an excellent way to summarize the teaching of the TOB.
For all of the above reasons, I think the covenant theology of the marriage act is helpful and should not be discarded. I think it ought to be included in every NFP program as well as in other marriage classes.
Next week: Ecological Breastfeeding
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant