Two goods need not be equal goods
the historic Church has at once emphasised celibacy and emphasised the family
The two colours make an effective image of coexistence, but they should not imply equal rank. Augustine supplies a particularly close theological comparison. In Of the Good of Marriage, §8, marriage is genuinely good, not merely preferable to sexual wrongdoing; continence is nevertheless the higher good. At §32 he identifies offspring, fidelity and the sacred marriage bond as goods, while still preferring a life devoted to Christ without seeking bodily offspring. These are claims about distinguishable Christian vocations, not simultaneous commands that every person both reproduce and abstain. Augustine, Of the Good of Marriage, §§8, 32.
His companion Of Holy Virginity, §18, expressly forbids exalting virginity by treating marriage as evil. Yet §19 also rejects making marriage equal to consecrated virginity. Chesterton's formulation captures the refusal to destroy either good, while leaving this hierarchy largely out of sight. Augustine's further insistence that humble married people follow Christ more readily than proud virgins (§52) prevents the ranking of vocations from becoming an automatic ranking of persons. Of Holy Virginity, §§18–19, 52. The inspected English witnesses are C. L. Cornish's translations in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 3 (1887), as revised for New Advent; these are translations of late antique works, not nineteenth-century doctrinal innovations.
Sources
Revision 1 of 1 · 2026-11-07 · Suggest an edit