How Catholic Christianity and Mahayana Buddhism view Marriage
One of the most significant parts of the existence of humankind is marriage. Marriage allows people to procreate and multiply, filling the world (Mullins, 2016). Since this paper is concise, it only allows time to compare one section of every religion. Therefore, the paper focuses on how Catholic Christianity and Mahayana Buddhism view marriage as an institution. The paper looks at how these two religions belief concerning marriage, how they celebrate marriage, how the view man and woman within a marriage institution, and the similarities and differences of their views. Finally, the paper provides a conclusion that summarizes both differences and similarities between Catholic and Buddhism views on marriage.
Buddhism Views on Marriage
Religion promotes and encouragesmarriage and divorce remains a sad issue among Buddhists. Buddhists have no obligation to marry, and most of the belief that marriage remains a choice that one could either take or leave (Ling & Chen, 2017). Buddhism allows people to cohabit as long as they stay happy; hence Buddhism lacks official teachings on the contents of a marriage ceremony. Buddhists only hold a ceremony or blessing occasion, but they never include any form of religious components to the service. The religion’s marriage view remains that the institution involves a civil ceremony where two people legally unit.
Buddhists monks should bless the marriage, but they never conduct the marriage ceremony. Buddhist marriage occasions should only reflect the country’s culture that remains more significant than the actual religious content (Indrayanti, Suhariningsih, Rubai&Aprilianda, 2017). Buddhists believe that the vital function f marriage is to unite an individual with someone he, she loves. Buddhism view marriage as a way of having children. Buddhism view marriage as a cause of suffering, and any person should acknowledge such an issue before a wedding. The religious beliefs that once married one should not engage in sexual misconduct; hence it forbids adultery since it results in suffering.
How Buddhist View a Man in a Marriage
Buddhists view a man in a marriage to have a responsibility of remaining attentive and courteous to the woman hence should not look down on her. The man has the obligation of loving the woman in marriage and remaining faithful at all times (Indrayanti et al., 2017). The religion holds that a man has a responsibility in marriage to share the authority with his woman every time. Buddhists view that a man should dress his wife with jewellers and all she might need to make herself more attractive and beautiful. The man in marriage under a Buddhist religion remains responsible for all economic issues of the family, making the woman economically dependent on the man.
How Buddhist View a Woman in Marriage
A woman in marriage has a huge responsibility of performing every household duty without any help from the man. The woman performs all tasks in the house like cooking, washing and taking care of the children. A woman in marriage has the responsibility of welcoming all the relatives in the home (Ling & Chen, 2017). Buddhists view a woman as the key protector of the family in marriage. A woman makes a proper household budget for the family and gives the budget to the husband. A woman has the responsibility of taking care of both the husband and the children. The woman in a marriage has an obligation of being faithful to the husband. Buddhist view marriage as an institution where one should not oppress or become harsh to one another but should remain compassionate and clam.
How Buddhist Celebrate Marriage
Buddhist celebrates marriage through ceremonies where they allow the couples to wear the attire of their colours in exception of black. Buddhist bride dresses conservatively with numerous stylish brocade fabrics. Other brides decide to wear a long skirt accompanied by a long-sleeved blouse, jacket and a scarf along with stunning jewellery (Ling & Chen, 2017). Buddhists only avoid black colour since it is sombre. Grooms wear conservatively accompanied with brocade fabrics while others wear full-length skirts or pants, hat, waistcoat and sash. Moreover, Buddhist marriage celebration remains relaxed because it involves celebrating love in a way the engaged couples could afford and wish. Buddhist celebration for marriage contains hymns, vows and blessings. Besides, they quote various declarations of love from respected figures like Buddha or Dalai Lama. Finally, the Buddhist celebration of marriage involves giving offerings to Buddha.
Catholic Christianity Views on Marriage
Catholic Christianity encourages people to marry since it serves as a covenant with God. For this reason, Christians believe that marriage serves a beautiful symbol of the love of God for his church and his bride (Mbwirire, 2017). According to Christians, marriage is a demonstration of love to the public between two individuals. Moreover, marriage forms part of a life pattern created by God during the time He created humanity. Christians believe that marriage is a loving partnership made deeper by sex. The Catholic Christians acknowledge that God loves marriage as they follow the Book of Mathew where Jesus said that a man should leave his mother and father join his wife and they shall become and remain as one, and not two until death separates them.
Christians value sex and advocate that people should only have sex when married. Christians also believe that marriage helps people to fulfil God’s creation plans of procreation and to fill the world (Horrell, 2016). Christians believe that marriage partnership binding serves as a symbol of a strong relationship between the church and Christ. The book of Revelations describes the church as dressed for Christ-like a bride for her bridegroom; hence marriage gives Christians a glimpse of enduring love that God has for his people and the faithful. Additionally, Catholics believe that marriage unites two individuals, a man and a woman in love.
How Catholic Christians View a Man in Marriage
Christians teach a man that he has an obligation from God to love their wives with their whole heart. A man should marry only one wife and love her truly until death separates them. Christians teach the husband as the spiritual head in a marriage (Horrell, 2016).In this case, a husband has the responsibility to initiate self-sacrifice and love for his wife’s well-being. Additionally, Christians believe in male leadership in marriage. The husband, according to Christian believes, have a biblical obligation of loving their wives similarly as Christ illustrated when he allowed himself nailed on a cross for his people.
According to Christians, a man has the responsibility to protect and provide for his family in marriage partnerships. For this reason, a man should guide his family towards God’s faithful ways of living and serving God (Mullins, 2016). Additionally, Christians view a man the physical protector of his family from any harm. Moreover, provide for the family economically until death separates the two married couples. The man has an obligation of remaining faithful to his only wife; hence Christianity does not advocate for polygamous families a man shall marry only one wife. Christians forbid cohabitation and same-sex marriages.
How Catholic Christians View a Woman in Marriage
The faithful Catholic view a woman as an individual with an obligation to submit to his loving husband. In this case, the woman has a biblical obligation to submit to her loving husband(Mullins, 2016). The woman under the Christian believes she should bear children to the man to fulfil God’s plan of creation. Woman under Catholic principles has an obligation of taking care of her family that includes the husband and children. Christians also view a woman as a person with a responsibility to remain faithful to the husband throughout their lives until death separates them.
How Christians Celebrate Marriage
Christians celebrate their marriage through increased levels of symbolism. The bridegroom and bride exchange promises to God and among themselves as a sign of a covenant with God (Mbwirire, 2017). The couples exchange rings to serve as sign and symbol of the promises made to one another. During the celebration, the married couple promises to stay together in good and bad times until death separates them. Christians also dance with joy as they celebrate the newly wedded couple. Additionally, Catholics make numerous prayers from different people in the ceremony to ask for God’s blessing upon the couples and for his support for the tough times ahead.
The woman wears a white grown, and a man could only wear a suit of any colour but not black, as it is a symbol of bad luck. Apart from the father, everyone has an obligation under Christian cerebration to marry (Mbwirire, 2017). The couples receive presents from friends and relatives during ceremonies. Moreover, Christians offer to offer to God as a sign of appreciation of the blessing of new married people in the church. Finally, Christians celebrate marriage as a church and not as an individual.
Similarities and Differences between Buddhism and Christianity Marriage Views
Conclusively, some of the similarities among these religions include that both religions consider marriage as a union between two people united by love. Moreover, the religions encourage marriage and discourage divorce since it brings sadness to the family and the church as a whole, respectively (Mbwirire, 2017). Both of them acknowledge that marriage enables people to have children. Consequently, both religious view sex before marriage as a wrong thing; once should wait until marriage to have sex hence have children. For this reason, religions believe that a man should love their wives until the end (Indrayanti et al., 2017). Besides, they believe that both the man and woman have an obligation of remaining faithful to one another in marriage. The man has an obligation of providing and caring for the wife in both religions. On each religion, a woman has a responsibility to care for the family, especially children. Both religions celebrate marriages by giving offering for the blessings of marriage.
Differences include that Buddhist have no obligation to marry while the Catholic Christians believe that they should marry. Catholics believe that marriage is a covenant between the church and God, while Buddhist believes that marriage is a choice between two people in love (Mullins, 2016). Additionally, Catholics believe that marriage is a demonstration of God’s love for the church and the bride. Still, Buddhist believes it is only a choice two people have chosen to pursue. Christian believesthat sex through marriage deepens love between two people, but Buddhist does not believe that sex has such significance in marriage.
Conclusion
Marriage forms part of the most important aspect of the existence of humans. Both Buddhists and Catholic Christianity value encourage marriage and discourage divorce for it bring about suffering and sadness. The findings show that both religions have various similarities and differences, as concluded in the section above. The key similarities include that they view men and women the same way in marriage, but Buddhist do not value sex in marriage as Catholics do. The Key difference stands out as the belief that marriage serves as a covenant with God among Christians while Buddhist take it as a choice two people in love make.
References
Horrell, D. G. (2016).Ethnicisation, marriage, and early Christian identity: critical reflections on 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Peter 3, and modern New Testament scholarship.
Indrayanti, K. W., Suhariningsih, S., Rubai, M., &Aprilianda, N. (2017). Religious Values And Beliefs Toward Interfaith Marriage in Indonesia in Pluralism Perspective. Academic Research International, 8(3), 58-64.
Ling, M. T. L., & Chen, H. F. (2017).Hong Kong’s parents’ views on sex, marriage, and homosexuality. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(6), 1573-1582.
Mbwirire, J. (2017). Causes of marital conflicts in Christian marriages in Domboshawa area, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe.
Mullins, D. F. (2016).The effects of religion on enduring marriages. Social Sciences, 5(2), 24.
