Marriage: The Rock on Which the Family is Built
Revised, Expanded Edition
By William E. May
Author: William May
Release Date:
October 2009
Length: 178 pages
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-258-9 · 5.25 x 8 Sewn Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 · www.ignatius.com
In today's society, marriage is under tremendous
attack. This raises an important question: is marriage the foundation of family
life? Many people today would say, "No!" Others would say, "Yes!", but they
would define "family" and "marriage" in ways at odds with how the words have
been used throughout human history. In this revised and expanded edition of
Marriage: The Rock on Which the Family is Built, internationally-renowned
theologian William E. May makes the case for marriage's foundational role for
family, with marriage defined as the union of one man and one woman. Drawing on
Pope John Paul II's "theology of the body", he explains the person-affirming,
love-enabling, life-giving, and sanctifying nature of marriage. He shows how
marriage is necessarily a complementary union of man and woman and how this
rules out the idea of "same-sex" marriage.
May argues, drawing on Popes Paul VI, John Paul
II and Benedict XVI, that marriage fully respects the equal dignity of
husband and wife as persons, while recognizing their unique, exclusive,
enduring, complementary contributions to their union. Likewise, he shows how
marriage honors the truth that each new human life brought about by sexual
union is a person equal in dignity to his mother and father. What's more,
both reason and revelation are used to show that only the family, founded on
marriage as an enduring, mutually-exclusive union of one man and one woman,
provides the proper context for begetting and raising children.
Reproductive technologies are also critically
examined and the author argues that human beings ought to be begotten in an
act of spousal love, not made through in vitro fertilization. Furthermore,
the role of the family as the "domestic church", a community of holiness, is
explored. This expanded edition includes new chapters: "Pope John Paul II's
Catechesis on the Theology of the Body" and "Pope Benedict XVI and
Marriage," the latter summarizing Benedict's thought on marriage,
particularly as found in his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est. Also
included is Pope John Paul II's Letter to Families.
About the Author
William E. May is the Michael J. McGivney
Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and
Family Life in Washington, D.C. The author of numerous works in moral
theology and ethics, he has served as a member of the Vatican's
International Theological Commission and is presently a consulter to the
Congregation for the Clergy.
To interview author William May, please contact:
Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press, (239)431-5025 or
rose@ignatius.com
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