Unit rationale, description and aim
Marriage and family have been integral to the life of human societies and to the practice of Christian communities. The Christian understanding of marriage and family is deeply affirmative, with marriage being regarded as a sacrament and the family as a "domestic church". In both, God's love and grace is received and lived in the context of human relationships as a covenant. Hence engagement with the understandings and practices of marriage and family in the Christian tradition offers insight into God's own saving plan for humanity. They also offer rich understandings that have had global influence on how different peoples and societies live out their familial and married life. This unit explores the contribution of Catholic faith and practice to the constitution of marriage/matrimony and family life, particularly understood in the context of a covenantal theology and drawing on recent papal teaching. It examines the historical development of the Christian experience of family, and key theological concepts concerning marriage as a relationship of life and love, the place of sex/gender, the gift of children, and the changing roles of men and women. The unit provides students with the conceptual foundations and insights, with reference to the Catholic tradition, from which to develop and apply critical understandings of contemporary aspirations and experiences in marriage and family.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Identify and explain the foundational biblical and...
Learning Outcome 01
Analyse contemporary Catholic theological views of...
Learning Outcome 02
Assess the contemporary experiences of and hopes f...
Learning Outcome 03
Content
Topics will include:
- Biblical teaching on marriage and family.
- Marriage and family in historical development.
- Human love as a lens for understanding the nature of divine love.
- Christian marriage as Sacrament.
- Marriage as a covenantal partnership of life and love between two equal persons.
- The perspective of Gaudium et spes on sexuality and marriage.
- Christian family life as a saving sacrament: the “domestic church”.
- The teaching of recent popes about marriage and family, especially that of Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia and St John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio.
- Contemporary issues which could include the following: pastoral care of engaged couples (marriage preparation), the newly married, and ‘older’ married couples; “conscious” parenthood; divorce and annulment; abortion and contraception; rise in secularism and sexualisation of culture; and, fertility and infertility
- Ecumenical and interfaith perspectives
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome.
Given the alignment of learning outcomes to the assessment tasks, in order to pass this unit, students are required to attempt all assessment tasks and achieve an overall mark of 50% or higher.
Assessment task 1 enables students to display achievement of LO1 by explaining the foundational biblical and theological concepts of the Catholic understanding of marriage and family, and their historical development.
Building on this, assessment task 2 requires students to analyse an important aspect of the contemporary Catholic theology of marriage and the family, with particular reference to Vatican II and recent papal teaching.
Assessment task 3 asks students to reflect critically on the contemporary experience of marriage and family in light of the learnings from the unit and assess hopes and directions for family and marriage in the context of recent Catholic teaching and theology.
Overview of assessments
Written Task: Requires students to demonstrate un...
Written Task: Requires students to demonstrate understanding of foundational biblical and theological concepts of the Catholic understanding of marriage and family.
30%
Presentation: Students present on an important fe...
Presentation: Students present on an important feature or insight of contemporary Catholic theology of marriage and family.
30%
Research essay: Students reflect critically on th...
Research essay: Students reflect critically on the contemporary experience of marriage and family and assess hopes and directions for family and marriage in the context of recent Catholic teaching and theology.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning, or the equivalent of 10 hours per week for 15 weeks. The total includes formally structured learning activities such as lectures, tutorials, online learning, or supervision. The remaining hours typically involve reading, research, and the preparation of tasks for assessment.
The unit is normally offered in attendance mode or multi-mode. Students learn through formally structured and sequenced learning activities that support the achievement of the learning outcomes. Students are asked to critically reflect, analyse, and integrate new information with existing knowledge, draw meaningful new connections, and then apply what they have learned. Collaborative and peer learning is also emphasized.
THCP224 emphasises students as active, adult learners. Students are recognised as adult learners who engage best when what they are learning is relevant to them and gives them the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning. In many ways, the student is the one who drives the learning forward, and their active participation in this unit is essential. Learning is designed to be an engaging and supportive experience, which helps students to develop critical thinking and reflection skills.