Marriage & Family Studies

Marriages and families are microcosms of life itself. Healthy and happy families tend to produce persons who are able to enjoy their own lives and to contribute meaningfully to society. Our culture, however, struggles more and more with the difficulty of sustaining life-long commitments. 

The B.A. degree in Marriage & Family Studies is a unique attempt to highlight the formation of students not only as future working professionals but also as strong spouses and parents. This is the only undergraduate program of its kind among Catholic colleges and universities!

Students have the opportunity to major or minor in Marriage & Family Studies or to complete a certificate program. With this background, students will be able to "make a living" in a variety of fields (social services, church ministries, counseling, etc.); more importantly, they will be able to "live their lives well" in fulfillment of their personal and social existence.

Kevin Hoffman (Associated Press wire story, December 1998)

Fourteen other colleges have Marriage and Family Studies majors, but Allentown's emphasis on preparing students to be spouses appears to be a unique approach, according to Peterson's a Princeton, N.J.-based education and career information company. Monika Hellwig of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities said she looked in her computer database and found no other college with such a major.

But can a class, or even a major, really lead to a healthier marriage? Dr. Arthur Mones, a coordinator of family and marital training at St. John's University in New York, says yes.

Bill Reel (Newsday, New York, 1/15/99)

But could it be that spouses just don't know how to be married, that they need to learn the skills? On that theory, a small college in Pennsylvania is offering a major in marriage and family -- not in counseling, but in the art of married living itself. It sounds novel, but if students may major in business, as many do to make a living, why not in marriage and family to make a happy home? ... Its novelty shouldn't discredit it. Finding and keeping a good spouse certainly is as important as, say, finding and keeping a good job.

To be graduated with a B.A. degree in Marriage & Family Studies, a student must complete a program of 13 courses, as follows:

Core Courses (7):

• TH 109 - Introduction to Theology {pre-requisite for all TH courses}
• TH 260 - Marriage and the Family
• TH 261 - Sexual Morality
• TH 362 - Jesus Christ
• TH 364 - The Church and Family Life
• TH Values Seminar: TH 478 (Body Talk) or TH 480 (Parenting)
• TH Advanced Study: TH 492 (Internship) or TH 499 (Independent Study)

 Required Elective Courses (3):

• HI 302 - Family, Sex, and Marriage
• PO 475 - Politics and the Family
• PL 475 - Friendship, Love, and Sexuality

Controlled Elective Courses (3) - chosen from among the following courses; other courses may be cross-registered or otherwise substituted with the permission of the department chair:

• CJ 354 - Addictions and the Family
• FN 290 - Personal Finance
• NU 302/304 - Maternal Child Nursing
• PS 240 - Human Development
• PS 250 - Social Psychology
• SO 250 - Human Behavior in the Social Environment
• TH 387 - The Meaning of Death and Dying
• TH 473 - Women in the World

[for a description of the Philosophy or Theology courses listed above, click here]

from James Q. Wilson (1997 Boyer Award winner , American Enterprise for Public Policy Research)

For decades our society has tried to make one nation out of two by changing everything -- except the family. ... Today, we are vastly richer, but the money has not purchased public saftey, racial comity, or educational achievement.

The reason, I think, is clear: it is not money but the family that is the foundation of public life. As it has become weaker, every structure built upon that foundation has become weaker. When our cultural framework is sagging, the foundation must first be fixed. ...

America has been told that it would be destroyed by slavery, alcohol, subversion, immigration, civil war, economic collapse, and atom bombs, and it has survived them all. Most people wish to be part of one family and one nation. If we wish to be one nation again, we must make the second one part of the first. We have tried almost everything to do this except for the one thing that matters most -- rebuilding the family. However difficult, it is what there is left to try.

from Pope John Paul II (pastoral visit to St. Louis, 1999)

• arrival (1/26/99)

Only a higher moral vision can motivate the choice for life. And the values underlying that vision will greatly depend on whether the nation contines to honor and revere the family as the basic unit of society: the family -- teacher of love, service, understanding and forgiveness; the family -- open and generous to the needs of others; the family -- the great wellspring of human happiness.

• homily (1/27/99)

As the new evangelization unfolds, it must include a special emphasis on the family and the renewal of Christian marriage. In their primary mission of communicating love to each other, of being co-creators with God of human life, and of transmitting the love of God to their children, parents must know that they are fully supported by the church and by society. The new evangelization must bring a fuller appreciation of the family as the primary and most vital foundation of society, the first school of social virtue and solidarity (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 42). As the family goes, so goes the nation!