The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony & the Restoration of the Social Order

Everyone seems to agree that Western Civilization is in trouble. The problem is that no one agrees on what has gone wrong or what to do about it. Some think we have too much government, some not enough ; some think we have too much capitalism, some not enough ;some think we have too much sexual freedom, some not enough.

But what if the problem is much more fundamental? What if the problem goes to the very foundations of who we are as human beings in relationship with God?

In The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order, Scott Hahn makes the startling claim that our society's ills and its cures are rooted in whether we reject or accept the divine graces made available through the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

Man, he argues, is social in his very nature. We were created for community. As it was in the beginning, so it remains today. The family, formed through the Sacrament of Matrimony, is the most basic building block of every society—whether we like it or not. We've corrupted marriage, and so we have a corrupt society. If we get marriage right, our society, through God's grace, will flourish.

This is so because Matrimony, like all the sacraments, heals and elevates human nature. Without marriage, our ambitions toward a just social order will remain forever foolhardy. With it, the seemingly impossible, a truly peaceful and humane civilization, becomes possible.

"Western society is deeply affected, indeed wounded, by sin, by rebellion against God and His plan for our eternal happiness. The most deadly wound has been inflicted by the ferocious attack on the fundamental truth of marriage, which seeks to obscure and sully the sublime beauty of the married state as God intended it from the Creation. Today we must be ready to suffer, as Christians have suffered down the ages, to honor and foster Holy Matrimony. Indeed, as Scott Hahn shows in his inspiring and challenging work, only a society radically obedient, through cooperation with sacramental grace, to the reign of Our Lord, Christ the King, can truly flourish. A society, formed and animated by sacramental grace, is established and flourishes in the very first society, the family. Such a society, in fact, becomes a reality in Christian families who, by their heroic example, witness to the splendor of the truth about marriage."
—Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

"Hahn puts forward an exciting—Catholic and catholic—vision of society centered in marriage and family, showing reasonably and forthrightly how we might 'apply the sacramental logic of the faith to the peculiar circumstances of the twenty-first century while learning from the pitfalls of the past.'"
—David L. Schindler
Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, The Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America; Editor, Communio

"Dr. Hahn convincingly shows how and why marriage is of utmost social and political significance. He does so by demonstrating that the way people live their sexuality has immediate repercussions for the rightly-understood common good."
—Stephan Kampowski, STD
Professor of philosophical anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Rome, and Co-Author of Accompanying, Discerning, Integrating

"In The First Society, Scott Hahn delivers the theological insight we've come to expect from him. But he also delivers a practical program for defending the family in our hostile secular world. No more confining ourselves to 'secular' or 'scientific' or 'natural law' reasons for our beliefs. While there is nothing wrong with those reasons, they are not enough. We have been leaving our best player, Jesus, on the bench for far too long. Dr Hahn says 'Now is the time to speak Catholic truth with clarity and boldness.' I completely agree. Marriage defenders: read this book, and follow its counsels!"
—Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD
Founder and President of The Ruth Institute

"Please don't open The First Society expecting a timid sermon. Hahn does not shy away from very direct criticism of secular liberalism as the culprit in undermining both marriage and the just social order. A secular view of marriage, claims Hahn, is as unworkable as a secular view of society. Amen!"
—Benjamin Wiker
Professor of Political Science and Director of Human Life Studies, Franciscan University of Steubenville and author of In Defense of Nature

"Scott Hahn does a masterful job of articulating the central role of marriage in God's plan for bringing the world to his heart. The First Society is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why marriage matters—especially in today's world."
—Gregory Popcak, PhD
Founder and Executive Director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute and Author of For Better…Forever: The Catholic Guide to Lifelong Marriage