Le bonheur et l’affection dans le mariage. Remarques sur quelques textes de la littérature latine chrétienne

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Considering love and happiness in the couple makes it possible to identify the components of Christian marriage as it was thought by the authors of the Patristic period. From some texts by Tertullian, Augustine, Paulinus of Nola and Dracontius, we see that the most important innovation resides in the appearance of a third party, Christ or God. The hierarchy of lifestyles, which led to valuing marriage as a spiritual union, led authors to depict marriage as a union strained towards a third party rather than as a unit centred on itself and aimed at individual happiness of its members. It is then the dynamics of this common tension towards God that interests the authors most, and the love between the spouses finds meaning within this common objective of the couple. Husband and wife therefore form a community, relating to the ecclesial community.