Indissolubility of Marriage

The Indissolubility of Marriage: Amoris Laetitia in Context by Matthew Levering, 177 pages

Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the papal response to the synods on the family held in 2014 and 2015, was contentious even before it was issued.  Controversy swirled around (and in) the synods over the Church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, which necessarily means that, while a civil divorce may be necessary in certain cases, remarriage constitutes adultery.  In Amoris Laetitia, the pope attempted to thread the needle by strongly reaffirming the indissolubility of marriage, but allowing that subjective factors may mitigate the objective sin of adultery and open a path for some, suitably penitent, divorced and remarried individuals to receive the Eucharist.  Whether by accident or design, however, the ambiguities of the exhortation and subsequent comments have generated a great deal of confusion and wide divergences in implementation.

In The Indissolubility of Marriage, Matthew Levering surveys the development of the Church's teaching on marriage, from the Gospel to Pope Benedict XVI, including examinations of Orthodox and Protestant positions on divorce.  In the process, he demonstrates that the sacramentality of marriage requires its indissolubility, and further argues that marriage ought to be recognized as indissoluble as a matter of natural law.  He therefore concludes that the betrayal of this teaching of reason as well as revelation would be gravely injurious, not only to the Church, but to the common good.