Religion, Theology, and Bioethical Discourses on Marriage and Family

Dear Colleagues,

Marriage and family are fundamental institutions in the life of every human being. After all, every person is born into a family, and to it he owes who he is and what kind of person he becomes. In it he shapes his personality, his humanity, and learns basic and fundamental experiences such as love, sensitivity, empathy, respect for the dignity of other people, sensitivity to other people or selflessness in action. In the family, too, he experiences God as Father of all people for the first time, learns to respond to His love and word, and learns to believe. The family is referred to as the “domestic Church”—the environment of religious experience and experience—and a place of sharing the word of God and living according to God’s indications, which are read, above all, in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. From these indications also flow moral duties, which a person strives to fulfill using God’s grace through participation in the Holy Sacraments and through personal, marital and family prayer.

We are pleased to invite you to participate in this Special Issue of the journal Religion, entitled “Problems of Religious Life of Marriage and Family, the Theology of Marriage and Family”, which is devoted to the ethical and moral challenges faced by persons entering into marriage, especially entering into sacramental marriage. The Special Issue addresses three basic areas of marriage and family life from the perspective of theological sciences. The first area is religious life, the life of faith, and the spiritual life of marriage and family. This Special Issue aims to demonstrate how leading a spiritual life by spouses affects their self-perception, and in particular how it affects their relationships and quality of married life. The second area of research concerns the theology of marriage and family, which involves revealing the truth revealed by God regarding marriage and family. To examine the dimensions of sacramental marriage and family, the consequences of this are outlined as follows: unity, and fidelity indissolubility. The two basic aims of sacramental marriage and how they are realized are of note here, namely the common good of the spouses and the begetting and raising of offspring. It is also worthwhile to examine issues related to the marriage of people of different faiths and their religious life. The third area is the ethical and moral issues of marriage and family life, arising from the sacramental requirements and concerning respect for the personal dignity of each spouse and the new human life conceived in marriage; these issues are related to sexuality and sexuality, the transmission of life, the use of contraception and early abortifacients, in vitro fertilization, abortion or surrogate parenthood. This Special Issue addresses these issues in the context of ongoing social changes that increasingly distort God’s revealed truth about marriage and family.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Research area A: The religious life of marriage and family. The importance of faith in marital and family life, its impact on marital relations, on the educational process, and on involvement in the Church community and social life. The impact of faith on attitudes toward others. The importance of prayer and sacramental life in marital and family life. Issues of respect and interreligious dialogue in the context of family life and the increasing number of marriages between people of different faiths. Pastoral activities of the Church in favor of marriage and family.
• Research area B: Theology of marriage and family. A look at these two basic institutions of human life from the perspective of theological science. God’s intention for marriage as a permanent and indissoluble union of one man and one woman and the family built on it, the vocation of love, and the responsible transmission of life. The sacramental dimension of marriage and the resulting qualities of marriage such as marital unity, fidelity and indissolubility.
• Research area C: Bioethical issues of marriage and family. The research area concerns the ethics and morality of family life, starting with respect for the personal dignity of each spouse, through the requirements arising from the sacramentality of marriage and the qualities of marriage (fidelity in sexual intercourse and the exclusion of extramarital sexual acts, autoerotic acts), and issues related to sexuality, sexuality and the responsible transmission of life, the use of contraceptives and early abortifacients, in vitro fertilization, the problem of abortion, and so on. It also aims to look at these problems from the point of view of Christian ethics and morality, and what effect they can have on attitudes towards oneself and others, and on marital, family and social relations.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Prof.Dr. Miroslaw Brzezinski mbrzeziń[email protected]. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Deadline for abstract submission: 20 May 2024

Deadline for full manuscript submission: 31 December 2024.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Mirosław Brzezinski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• marriage
• family
• faith
• religion
• God's design for marriage
• sacrament of marriage
• sexuality
• sexuality
• ethics of married life
• morality of married life
• pastoral care of families.