The Christian Influence Over Secular Understandings of Marriage in the United States: A Critical Analysis of Augustinian Theology

• Main Author: Shin, Rebecca C.
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2015
• Subjects: Augustine; Marriage; Politics; Christianity; Proles; Fides; Sacramentum; Religion
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/516; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1620&context=scripps_theses

In this thesis, I seek to contextualize the exclusivity of traditional marriage in the United States. I investigate the use of Christian beliefs applied to the American legal system, consequently becoming the foundation of American commonsense. I draw out the ways in which Augustinian thoughts on marriage have inadvertently been used to justify institutional favoritism toward heterosexual, monogamous couples. Through examining the Christian-American lens that shapes our understanding of traditional marriage, I argue that previous and current secular opposition to non-traditional marriage is fundamentally grounded in Christian faith, furthermore, American cultural understanding of marriage is unconsciously lined with Augustinian thought.