The
Pauline Privilege (
Privilegium Paulinum) is a
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
concept drawn from the
apostle PaulPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
's instructions in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians.
In Paul's epistle it states:
The first section, "not I but the Lord", matches
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
' teaching on divorce, found in the
Expounding of the LawThe Expounding of the Law , called by some the Antithesis of the Law, is a highly structured part of the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament of the Christian Bible...
, , , and . The second section, "I say, not the Lord", gives Paul's own teaching on divorce.
In the Catholic Church and in some
ProtestantProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
denominations (though most Protestants allow divorce in all serious circumstances), this is interpreted as allowing the dissolution of a
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
contracted between two non-baptized persons in the case that one (but not both) of the partners seeks baptism and converts to Christianity and the other partner leaves the marriage.
It is said that the Pauline Privilege differs from
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
in that it leaves the Christian partner free to remarry, despite the fact that Paul does not himself comment on the lawfulness of such a remarriage.
The
Pauline Privilege (
Privilegium Paulinum) is a
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
concept drawn from the
apostle PaulPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
's instructions in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians.
Origin
In Paul's epistle it states:
The first section, "not I but the Lord", matches
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
' teaching on divorce, found in the
Expounding of the LawThe Expounding of the Law , called by some the Antithesis of the Law, is a highly structured part of the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament of the Christian Bible...
, , , and . The second section, "I say, not the Lord", gives Paul's own teaching on divorce.
In the Catholic Church and in some
ProtestantProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
denominations (though most Protestants allow divorce in all serious circumstances), this is interpreted as allowing the dissolution of a
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
contracted between two non-baptized persons in the case that one (but not both) of the partners seeks baptism and converts to Christianity and the other partner leaves the marriage.
It is said that the Pauline Privilege differs from
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
in that it leaves the Christian partner free to remarry, despite the fact that Paul does not himself comment on the lawfulness of such a remarriage. It differs from
annulmentAnnulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is retroactive: an annulled marriage is considered never to have existed....
because it dissolves a valid actual marriage, in favor of the faith of the Christian partner, where annulments declare that a marriage was invalid from the beginning.
According to the
Catholic Church's canon lawCanon Law, the ecclesiastical law of the Roman Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. The academic degrees in canon law are the J.C.B. , J.C.L...
, the Pauline Privilege does not apply when either of the partners was a Christian at the time of marriage. Under
CatholicismThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, the
Petrine PrivilegePetrine Privilege or a decree in favor of the faith is a provision in the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church granting a previously married person the right to marry under certain specific circumstances. The implementation of this procedure is reserved to the Pope...
may be invoked if only one of the partners was
baptizedIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
at the time of marriage.
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