It was only after the Protestant Reformation that marriage came to be considered as a civil institution.
The early Christians understood marriage to be a union between one man a one woman. It was not a contract or a financial arrangement but a sacred union that reflected God’s love.
“Christ turned the accepted cultural norms about marriage on its head” says Bethany Blankley
She says that it was not until Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire that the Roman church “became formally responsible for performing weddings.”
And, “It wasn’t until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century that the recording of marriages and establishing of rules for marriage became a function of the state.”
Continue reading in the Huffington Post
Bethany Blankley is a religion and politics analyst. She he has a master’s degree in Theology in Christian Ethics from The University of Edinburgh. She writes about cultural issues from a Christian perspective. Read more of Bethany Blankley’s blogs at bethanyblankley.com
Image: Les cahiers d’Alain Truong
