Publisher's description and from the inside cover:
Marriage in the Western Church examines how marriage acquired a specifically Christian identity in the Western Church from the patristic through Carolingian periods. It shows how theologians came to regard marriage as an ecclesiastical institution and how they developed a Christian theology of marriage.
The first part of the book deals with marriage and divorce in Roman and Germanic law. Other parts deal with marriage and divorce in ecclesiastical law, with the Latin Fathers' distinction between the divine and human laws of marriage, and with the customary stages by which persons became married. Several chapters are devoted to Augustine's views on marriage and sexuality.
The author shows how the doctrine of indissolubility became the West's chief means of christianizing marriage, and how theologians found here their preferred arguments for affirming the holiness and the 'sacramentality' of marriage. The author argues that the Western regime of indissolubility was the product of a fourth century reform movement.

CONTENTS:
page IX Abbreviations
XI Acknowledgments
XIII Introduction: the Christianization of Marriage
PART ONE: MARRIAGE IN CIVIL LAW
3 I. Roman Law: the Formation and Nature of Marriage
44 II. Roman Law: the Dissolution of Marriage
66 III. Germanic Law: Betrothal and Divorce
101 IV. Germanic Law: Irregular and Informal Marriage
PART TWO: MARRIAGE IN THE CHURCH
121 V. Lex Divina: the Distinction
142 VI. Lex Divina: the Historical Context
156 VII. The Impediment of Inequality
173 VIII. The Matthean Exception in the Fathers
213 IX. The Matthean Exception and the Doctrine of Indissolubility
227 X. Separating to Serve God
PART THREE: AUGUSTINE'S THEOLOGY OF MARRIAGE
241 XI. Augustine on Marriage as Spiritual Union
259 XII. Augustine on Marriage as a Remedy
280 XIII. Augustine on the Sacrament in Marriage
PART FOUR: THE NUPTIAL PROCESS
315 XIV. Betrothal
328 XV. Consummation
362 XVI. Benediction
386 XVII. Marrying in the Frankish Church
413 Conclusion: from consortium omnis vitae to sacramentum magnum
420 Bibliography
429 Index