Renewing a Catholic Theology of Marriage Through a Common Way of Life: Consonance with Vowed Religious Life-In-Community
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects Renewing a Catholic Theology of Marriage through a Common Way of Life: Consonance with Vowed Religious Life-in-Community Kent Lasnoski Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Lasnoski, Kent, "Renewing a Catholic Theology of Marriage through a Common Way of Life: Consonance with Vowed Religious Life-in-Community" (2011). Dissertations (1934 -). 98. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/98 RENEWING A CATHOLIC THEOLOGY OF MARRIAGE THROUGH A COMMON WAY OF LIFE: CONSONANCE WITH VOWED RELIGIOUS LIFE-IN- COMMUNITY by Kent Lasnoski, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2011 ABSTRACT RENEWING A CATHOLIC THEOLOGY OF MARRIAGE THROUGH A COMMON WAY OF LIFE: CONSONANCE WITH VOWED RELIGIOUS LIFE-IN-COMMUNITY Kent Lasnoski Marquette University, 2011 Beginning with Vatican II‘s call for constant renewal, in light of the council‘s universal call to holiness, I analyze and critique modern theologies of Christian marriage, especially those identifying marriage as a relationship or as practice. Herein, need emerges for a new, ecclesial, trinitarian, and christological paradigm to identify purposes, ends, and goods of Christian marriage. The dissertation‘s body develops the foundation and framework of this new paradigm: a Common Way in Christ. I find this paradigm by putting marriage in dialogue with an ecclesial practice already the subject of rich trinitarian, christological, ecclesial theological development: consecrated religious life. Chapter one outlines two paradigms for marriage (relationship and practice), noting their strengths and weaknesses, particularly their need for ecclesial, trinitarian, and Christological grounding. Chapter two treats contemporary scholarship relating consecrated and conjugal life, finding therein an adversarial narrative and dichotomization of the two states. Chapter three counteracts and complicates the adversarial narrative by recovering an Augustinian approach to shared ecclesio-nuptial goods of virginal and matrimonial life. Chapter four encompasses scriptural consideration of Christian life as domestic, as householding with God; it studies principles of Christian householding in a variety of Christian householding forms. Chapter five develops the theological loci missing from the principles of Christian householding, namely the evangelical counsels, the Trinity, and Christology. The final chapter constructs a framework for the paradigm of marriage as Common Way in Christ by integrating previous chapters‘ insights that present marriage along with consecrated life as a practice, as ecclesial, as Christian householding, as trinitarian, and as lived according to a regula in Christ‘s own virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The chapter provides examples for practicing these virtues and suggests a heuristic for marriage-preparation as novitiate. Major interlocutors are Augustine, Vatican II, John Paul II, Margaret Hogan, Bernard Lonergan, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Michael Lawler, Julie Hanlon Rubio, Alasdair MacIntyre, David Matzko McCarthy, Jana M. Bennett, Thomas Breidenthal, Francis Moloney, Sandra Schneiders, Hans urs von Balthasar, and Marc Cardinal Oullet. Future directions would develop the paradigm with focus on ―domestic church‖ and ―parenthood as a church‖ in light of emerging householding forms. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kent Lasnoski This dissertation has been unique in that it has for its object of research my very life. Upon entering theological studies, my wife and I decided that I would study what we do—in the interest of doing it better. What we do is hold house together as spouses in Christ. Therefore Caitlin and our children (Aquinas John Paul, Hope Julian, Innocence Francis, Gabriel Benedict, Magdalena Grace, and the one on the way) deserve first acknowledgement and thanks for making this dissertation possible. We daily form each other in the virtues (and sometimes the vices) of the Common Way in Christ; may God grant that we be ever more conformed to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ the poor, chaste, and obedient. Second acknowledgement must go to our Christian households of origin (Joseph and Robin Lasnoski, and Donna and David Lukens), as well as to our friends and relatives working with us toward practices and principles of marriage as a Common Way in Christ. As for professional acknowledgements, a first belongs to M. Therese Lysaught, who diligently, charitably, and skillfully directed this dissertation. Her encouragements, insight, love for the Church, and excellence in the practice of scholarship have provided integral support for this project. Second, the members of the dissertation board, Michel R. Barnes, Susan K. Wood, S.C.L., and Robert M. Doran, S.J., deserve many thanks for their willingness to support this project with their academic expertise, their attention to detail, and continual encouragement. I owe a debt of gratitude to Ulrich Lehner, Mark F. Johnson, William Kurz, S.J., David G. Schultenover, S.J., and each professor under ii whom I studied or for whom I worked at Marquette. They have shaped my habits of thought and research practices by introducing me to the subjects and authors near to their own hearts, minds, bookshelves, and keyboards. From the theology department in general, Cynthia Howard, Patricia Psuik, Gale Prusinski, and the AnGST board of directors merit special thanks for their administrative adroitness and flexibility. The Theology Department, its Chairs, and the Marquette University Graduate School deserve acknowledgement for their generous financial support of my graduate studies, especially in the form of Teaching Assistantships and the John P. Raynor, S.J. Fellowship. Finally, Saint Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. John the Evangelist, St. Joseph, and Mary the Mother of God, I thank you for the witness of your lives in faith, hope, charity, for the writings you left to our edification, and most especially for your continued prayers to God the Father, through Christ the Son, in the Spirit. May we all come to share in the many rooms of our Father‘s house. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................... i INTRODUCTION: CONTEXT, PROBLEM, METHOD, AND ARGUMENT ..................1 I. Problem and Its Context ........................................................................................1 A. Sex, Love, and Marriage in the U.S.: 1965–2010 ....................................3 B. Beginning With a Narrative .....................................................................6 C. Summary and Critique .............................................................................28 II. Toward Authentic Renewal: Method and Argument ...........................................36 CHAPTER 1: POST VATICAN II THEOLOGIES OF MARRIAGE— TWO PARADIGMS ..............................................................................................................43 I. Marriage as Relationship .......................................................................................43 A. The Traditional Position...........................................................................44 B. The Emerging Position .............................................................................51 C. Critique .....................................................................................................63 II. Marriage as Practice .............................................................................................73 A. Alasdair MacIntyre ..................................................................................76 B. David Matzko McCarthy ..........................................................................86 C. Jana M. Bennett .........................................................................................91 D. Critique.....................................................................................................94 III. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................96 CHAPTER 2: POST-VATICAN II ATTEMPTS AT DIALOGUE BETWEEN MARRIAGE AND CONSECRATED LIFE .........................................................................98 I. Universal Vocation as Heuristic ............................................................................98 iv II. Relating Marriage and Consecrated Life as Ways of Holiness In Recent Scholarship: A Standard Narrative ............................................................................105 III. Marriage and Virginity: Equals At Last? Three Scholars‘ Proposals ..................114 A. Parrella‘s Lay Spirituality—Inadvertently Inverting a Hierarchy of Holiness ...........................................................................114 B. Kenneth Russell and the Loss of a Distinction ........................................120 C. Separate but Equal: Peter Phan on Marriage and Consecrated Life ........126 IV. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................135 CHAPTER 3: COMPLICATING A STANDARD