Birth control, mixed marriages (so-called), the emancipation of women, the revolution in the social pattern of marriage-issues like these, which vitally affect the married life of Catholics today, demand objective study and open discussion. But not discussion in a void, not study cut off from the context of what God has himself told us about marriage. And so, in this first volume of a major work which will later treat all these issues, Professor Schillebeeckx goes to the source of revelation about marriage the bible.