The bonum coniugum in the Iight of the Augustinian Bona

Abstract

The Fathers at the Second Vatican Council were inspired to give the institutional view of marriage a personalistic dress. Marriage although still considered a contract sui generis has been defined as a covenant for the setting up of a consortium for the whole life whose end is the good of the spouses and the generation and education of children. Thus the good of the spouses - bonum coniugum - is both an end of the consortium and an essential element of marriage itself. In Chapter l of my dissertation l will discuss the views of Saint Augustine - to whom the present Holy Father is so particularly attached - on marriage with special reference lo his treatise De bono coniugali, going on to trace the theological and canonical developments of the medieval and scholastic theologians and canonists ensuing from his doctrine. Chapter II will focus on tridentine and post tridetine developments up to Vatican II. This Council and especially Gaudium et spes propose a personalistic vision of marriage. In Chapter III, I will explore this vision in some depth especially in connection with Canons 1055 and 1056 (CIC 1983) giving special attention to the concept of the bonum coniugum, a completely new concept introduced by the same Code. In Chapter IV I will present a review of canonical jurisprudence addressing this new concept. It is my belief that the concept of the bonum coniugum is in fact present in Augustine's doctrine and it is my humble belief that it is an urgent task of canon law and jurisprudence to place the bonum coniugum on the same level as the other traditional Augustinian bona.