The church has been arguing about marriage for a long time.

More than 1,600 years ago, some Christian writers dismissed marriage not only as inferior to celibacy but also as actually evil.

It was to counter them that Augustine wrote The Excellence of Marriage.

He identified three positive goods about marriage and argued that, because of them, marriage itself is good.

First, marriage is good because it provides for having children, which is necessary for continuing the human race.

Second, marriage is good because it provides the occasion for mutual fidelity.

And third, Christian marriage is good because it points beyond itself to symbolize something greater, the relationship of Christ to his church.

Isn't that wonderful? In addition to the natural good of procreation, and in addition to the personal good of fidelity, the third, highest, and spiritual good of Christian marriage, in its monogamous and indissoluble character, is that it bears witness that "in the future we shall all be united and subject to God in the one heavenly city" (p. 39).

To read more, see: Augustine. "The Excellence of Marriage." In Marriage and Virginity: The Excellence of Marriage, Holy Virginity, The Excellence of Widowhood, Adulterous Marriages, Continence, translated by Ray Kearney, edited with introductions and notes by David G. Hunter, pp. 27-61. In The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Part I-Books, volume 9. New York: New City Press, 1999.