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Document Details :

Title: Zur Theologie der Ehe in ökumenischer Perspektive
Author(s): DIETZ, Walter
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 6    Issue: 2   Date: Autumn 2000   
Pages: 232-246
DOI: 10.2143/INT.6.2.2004587

Abstract :

The theology of marriage from an ecumenical standpoint

The author aims to develop the outlines of a transconfessional Christian understanding of marriage that deals with the question of the sacramentality of marriage and the constitutive meaning of the togetherness of man and wife in marriage. The thesis will be proposed that modern demands of a legal, social and cultural nature (e.g. the propaganda for the introduction of homosexual partnerships as a registered institution of family law in Germany) provide an excellent opportunity for both Catholics and Lutherans to rethink the essence of Christian marriage from an ecumenical perspective. The external critique of Christian marriage can thus contribute to a strengthening of its intrinsic value by helping to minimize the weight of confessional factors in it. In a nutshell: Christian marriage is most alive where it is declared to be dead. It thrives on being discussed and debated and is valuable precisely when shown to be not the norm but the exception in society. The idea of its sacramental-symbolic character is realised in a symbolism which has no necessary connection with a condition of legal privilege.


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