The Splendor of Marriage

The Splendor of Marriage is essential reading for anyone interested in the thought of Pope John Paul II or the theology of marriage and family. It concisely lays out the pope’s major doctrines by drawing from key papal and pre-papal sources such as Love and Responsibility, Theology of the Body, Mulieris Dignitatem, and Familiaris Consortio. Close attention is paid to the pope’s distinctive contributions: his profound analysis of the unique character of spousal love; his personalistic approach to the issue of sexual morality, which highlights the “value of the person”; his treatment of marriage as the “primordial” sacrament and “prototype” of all the sacraments; and his novel emphasis on the family’s sovereign power and on “family rights,” which adds new depth and richness to the Church’s social magisterium. The vision of marriage and family set forth so elegantly in John Paul II’s writings has the power to edify and educate a society still caught up in the throes of the devastating sexual revolution.