A short but profound book you might enjoy …: What Binds Marriage Forever, by Ida Friederike Görres, an [Austrian] writer of the 20th century.
Görres, along with a very few other admirable women, stood against the movement to incite, much less pretend to resolve, “the woman question” along modernist lines. In the midst of increasing agitation to allow women priests and to undermine marriage, Görres simply and profoundly exposes a loss of faith.
The publisher [of What Binds Marriage Forever] asked me to write a blurb; a much shortened version was put on the [book’s website]; it’s quite a small book! [so no endorsements fit onto the back cover] and my endorsement is long, but I thought you might like to see what I originally said about it:
In What Binds Marriage Forever, Ida Görres speaks directly to the reader in a form that assumes, bracingly, a shared search for the truth. Without a forest of scholarly citations, she confronts modern attitudes towards marriage with the confidence of ready Scriptural knowledge, a deep understanding of common experience, and a grasp of fundamental moral principles. Her unusual method, I think, is simply to awaken conscience.
Görres warns that Progressivism instills “inverted envy.” With a Chestertonian flair for startling paradox, she notices that those perceived as having more than others are admonished to relinquish their claim to what is good. In the case of marriage, the guilty happy cannot leave the institution intact; the arbiters of modern society demand they must surrender it to the unhappy.
What Binds Marriage Forever offers a needed corrective to prevalent skepticism towards whatever is ancient, including matters of doctrine and discipline, while simultaneously defending against legalism. Anyone grappling with the challenge of the contemporary annulment process, with its sentimental reliance on defect of consent, will be edified by the unswerving clarity of Ida Görres’s work.
Jennifer Bryson’s erudite translation and thoughtful editing of this work enable the English speaker to access an important resource for approaching this highly relevant topic of our day, marriage: a topic with unique implications for the well being of children, society, and ultimately, as St. Paul tells us, our very conception of faith, understood as God’s nuptial relationship with His Church.
As a sort of “soft” feminism continues to penetrate the Church, I think we need to shore up the quality of our reading. The work of Ida Görres is an accessible and wise place to start.
Leila Marie Lawler, a mother, grandmother, and faithful Catholic, blogs at “Like Mother, Like Daughter” and can be heard weekly on “The Home Front” podcast with her husband Phil Lawler.
This review previously appeared at “Like Mother, Like Daughter” and is reprinted here with permission. It has been edited lightly for this edition.
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