Marriage as Sacred Mystery: Some Theological Reflections on the Purposes of Marriage

Douglas Anderson

Article Type: Article

Publication Date: 10/1/1985

Issue: Gender across Generations (Vol. 5, No 4, Fall, 1985)

Marriage is a mystery. Humans who enter its “holy estate” at times find themselves in a literal “hell-on-earth” of terrible suffering, while at other times in a literal “heaven-on-earth” of joyful ecstasy. Pastors who walk with married parishioners through these depths of despair and heights of joy sometimes wonder why God chose this means to propagate the species. What were the Creator’s purposes in inflicting—or blessing—us with this state? These purposes, of course, are veiled in mystery. In what follows I will share my guesses as to what some of those purposes might be.

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