"Brugger’s analysis is as crisp as one could hope… His diligence in rendering the complicated Latin into plain spoken English and his familiarity with the secondary literature on the subject commends the volume to both graduate theological libraries (both Catholic and Protestant), interested faculty, and canon law collections. Doubtless it will also be read in more than one Roman dicastery."
~Catholic Library World
"With great energy and un blinking conviction, E. Christian Brugger, who is now professor and dean at the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Australia, argues that the Council of Trent (1545–1563) taught unequivocally that marriage is indissoluble."
~Commonweal Magazine
"I was happy to stumble upon Christian Brugger’s breathtaking analysis of Trent. It is not a historical study but of crucial importance for the discussion of divorce and remarriage in Catholicism… Brugger’s book should be widely read and discussed; especially graduate students can learn from its clearly formulated arguments and its textual analysis; this is how historical theology should be done. Whether one agrees with the conclusions he presents or not—this is clearly one of the most important books on the history of Catholic theology of 2017."
~Regensburg Forum
"Professor Brugger deserves much credit for his careful and scholarly analysis of the discussions leading up to the Nov. 11, 1563, Doctrine and Canons on the Sacrament of Marriage. The Indissolubility of Marriage & The Council of Trent shows what an important service scholars like Brugger can provide to the Church. If scholars like Fransen can lead many theologians and bishops to question Trent’s absolute affirmation of marital indissolubility, scholars like Brugger are needed to set the record straight. Prof. Brugger deserves much praise and thanks for his scholarly and valuable book."
~Catholic Social Science Review
"Brugger's remarkable book is a singular service to the Church and essential reading for anyone, whether suspicious of or sympathetic to the thesis, and who is seriously interested in learning what Trent actually teaches about the indissolubility of marriage."
~Thomist
"This book, written by a moral theologian, is based on excellent historical research. As the title itself states, the essay examines the issue of the indissolubility of marriage in Christian doctrine and tradition, starting with a thorough analysis of the Tridentine debate on the subject."
~Catholic Historical Review
" The Indissolubility of Marriage and the Council of Trent by E. Christian Brugger should be required reading for anyone seriously involved in recent Catholic debates over divorce and remarriage. The book advances two important points. First, the Council of Trent did hold that sacramental marriage is inherently indissoluble despite what some interpreters have claimed. Second, rigorous historical inquiry is essential to good moral theology."
~National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly
"The book offers an exemplary treatment of the historical path by which Trent arrived at its teaching on the marriage bond…This book is one that will be indispensable for those wishing to reflect on how to present the Church’s teaching on marriage today in a way that remains faithful to its tradition."
~New Blackfriars
"For scholars of the early modern church, particularly those focused on the reforms of marriage in the sixteenth century, this book may be of some interest. It provides an admirably detailed and easily digestible exploration of the debates and discussions about indissolubility, primarily taken from the massive thirteen-volume Concilium Tridentinum series. The book also includes three substantial appendixes, which provide the reader with the writings of various theological authorities referenced at Trent (in Latin and English), the statements of the General Congregation on Indissolubility from 1563 (also in Latin and English), and a complete schedule of the Council of Trent, all of which may be of use to scholars of Tridentine reforms of marriage."
~Renaissance Quarterly
"In The Indissolubility of Marriage and the Council of Trent, E. Christian Brugger, professor of moral theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, gives a focused and exhaustive account of the sixteenth-century Church's treatise on matrimony and its implications for theologians today."
~First Things
