Marriage: The Mystery of Faithful Love

by Dietrich von Hildebrand

Book Overview

How to have a stronger, happier marriage

These pages will give you what you need to make your marriage a source of profound happiness and lasting peace:

Knowledge: You'll come to understand the nature of marriage and its superiority to "living together" and other temporary unions.Love: You'll learn to distinguish love from lust, infatuation, and other common counterfeits; and you'll discover the healing role it can...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 091847700X
• ISBN13: 9780918477002
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.9" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A lovely little book on marriage

Von Hildebrand beautifully describes the mystery of conjugal love. Listen to what he says on page 9: "But two human beings can also turn to face one another, and in touching one another in an interpenetrating glance, give birth to a mysterious fusion of their souls. They become conscious of one another, and making the other the object of his contemplation and responses, each can spiritually immerse himself in the other. This is the I-thou relationship, in which the partners are not side by side, but face to face". If you like this short book, I would also recommend "the heart".

The Indebtedness of the "Theology of the Body" to Dietrich Von Hildebrand

One hundred and twenty-nine of Pope John Paul II's general audiences (9/5/79 to 11/28/84) have become known to us as his Theology of the Body. In spreading the good news about the late Holy Father's teachings, Christopher West explains: "The Holy Father presents a vision of Marriage and sexuality never before articulated." Clarification may be in order. It takes nothing away from the Theology of the Body to look at some of its influences. In 1929, German philosopher Dietrich Von Hildebrand published "Marriage," which was excitedly received by his country's papal nuncio (who later became Pope Pius XII). On its web site, EWTN explains that Marriage constituted the "earliest orthodox presentation of the personalistic approach to matrimony which would find its way into Vatican II's Guadium et Spes, Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae and...the writings of Pope John Paul II....Pope Pius XII called von Hildebrand `the 20th century Doctor of the Church.'" Published just one year before Pope Pius XI's Casti Connubii, "Marriage" is a wonderful little book, which reads as fluidly and beautifully as a Christopher West presentation of the Theology of the Body (My quotes are from Sophia Institute's 1997 paperback edition.): "there is no greater mystery in the natural order of things than the fact that this closest of all unions procreates a human being with an immortal soul (although the soul, in each case, is a direct creation of God), and that this act brings a new being into existence destined to love God and to adore Him, a new being made after His image" (p. 26). "How terrible to think of man wanting to destroy this unity which God has established so mysteriously, deeming those united in the highest earthly union of love worthy to take part in His creative power" (p. 28). "He alone can understand the horror of the sin of promiscuity who has grasped the grandeur and sublimity of bodily union as the full realization of conjugal love, and who realizes that besides the primary end of procreation, the primary meaning of bodily union lies in the fulfillment of conjugal love" (pp. 30, 31). "Jesus has invested marriage with a dignity which represents something quite new....He raised it to the rank of a Sacrament. He made of this sacred bond a specific source of grace. He transformed marriage - already sacred in itself - into something sanctifying" (p. 53). Despite its freshness and seeming newness, Marriage was based on notes from one of von Hildebrand's own 1923 talks! As per Dr. Thomas Howard (A Portrait of Dietrich von Hildebrand, 2000), "It is inconceivable that the writings of von Hildebrand will ever be dated, no matter what tortuous metamorphoses the coming centuries may bring." Von Hildebrand's life seems to have been packed with sanctity, romance, heroism, and intrigue. An outspoken opponent of Hitler, he became targeted for assassination. Hunted throughout Europe, he arrived in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Jesuit-ru

Excellent book for couples of any faith.

von Hildebrand recovers for our modern world a vision of marriage not often believed to be possible, showing that -- in fact -- such a marriage is both eminently possible and _necessary_, a marriage in which the bond is much deeper than legal or emotional, a marriage in which the couple -- as another reivewer noted -- "fight against themselves on behalf of the other." It is a thing of hard work, of surrender, of bliss, and of deep growth and union. It is a path to true sanctity. This is the marriage for which everyone longs but which few realize is possible.

MARRIAGE AS IT IS AND AS IT SHOULD BE

Marriage gives true love a structure. Hildebrand makes the point that marriage causes each spouse to fight against himself for the sake of his beloved. This, argues, von Hildebrand is why it has become so unpopular.Von Hildebrand has provides us a forcefully correct understanding of marriage. If you believe that love is both enduring and faithful and that marriage is an unbreakable bond, this book is for you. If you believe that marriage is a well intended union, but need not be permanent this book is really for you.Von Hildebrand has not written another dimestore "discover yourself and save your marriage" books. Von Hildebrand understands, and argues forcefully, that in loving your spouse you are loving Christ because your spouse is a member of the Body of Christ.Selfless love towards your spouse is to care solely for the salvation of the person meant by God for you. Once this is realized conjugal love, romantic love, and an enduring love follow.I really enjoyed this book. It provides an insight into the Catholic understanding of marriage as a sacrament and indissolvable union. No reader will leave this book without having gained some insight and respect for marriage. Buy the book.