What this page does, and does not do
It sets out what the major religions teach about the couple, as they state it themselves, without ruling between them or judging them. It does not tell you what to do: in secular states these rules bind only those who claim them, and civil law — civil marriage, divorce, parentage — does not take them over. In other countries religion is the law of marriage: Israel, Lebanon, most countries of Islamic law, India for personal status. The country pages on the religious ceremony say, for each country, what a religious marriage is worth in law.
Seven traditions are presented: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism (with its two families, the historic churches and the evangelical churches), Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Each is diverse; the official or majority position is given here, with the main exceptions.
Must you marry before having sex?
All the religions of the Book answer yes, with different degrees of firmness; the religions of Asia answer mostly through custom.
- Catholicism. Sexual relations are reserved to marriage; outside it they are a sin — the "fornication" of the Catechism (no. 2353). The Church makes no exception for engaged couples or stable partners. In practice the vast majority of European Catholics have sex before marriage; the Church knows it and keeps the rule.
- Orthodoxy. The same rule, with the same distance between doctrine and practice; chastity before marriage is an ascetic ideal, and a couple who lived together first is married without difficulty.
- Protestantism. The historic churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican) teach that sexuality finds its meaning in marriage, but most no longer condemn the relations of a stable, committed couple; the evangelical and Pentecostal churches ask for abstinence until marriage, sometimes with public pledges (the "purity" movements).
- Islam. A clear prohibition: any sexual relation outside marriage is zina, forbidden by the Qur'an (17:32; 24:2). The religious marriage — the nikah, a contract — is the only way; that is why some couples marry religiously early, even before living together. In several countries of Islamic law zina is also a criminal offence.
- Judaism. Traditional Jewish law reserves relations to marriage — the rules of family purity (niddah, ritual bath) make them impracticable outside it anyway; Reform Judaism and much of Conservative Judaism leave the question to conscience.
- Hinduism. The texts of dharma make the student a brahmachari, a celibate, until marriage, and the social norm remains very strong in India; but no authority sets it for all Hindus, and practice varies widely between communities and countries.
- Buddhism. The third precept forbids "sexual misconduct" — adultery, coercion, abuse — but no text requires marriage before relations; the cultures of Buddhist countries decide, often in favour of reserve.
The duties of spouses according to the religions
All traditions require fidelity and mutual support; they differ on the nature of the bond — sacrament, contract, rite — and on what it implies.
- Catholicism. Marriage is a sacrament, indissoluble, between a man and a woman, "ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring" (canon 1055). Spouses owe each other fidelity, help, openness to life — artificial contraception has remained forbidden since Humanae vitae (1968), natural methods are allowed — and equal rights and duties (canon 1135). No divorce: a marriage can only be declared null, if it was never valid.
- Orthodoxy. A sacrament too, but the Church admits divorce in limited cases (adultery, desertion) by "economy", and remarriage, up to three times, with a penitential rite.
- Protestantism. Marriage is not a sacrament — Luther called it "a worldly matter" — but a covenant blessed by God; fidelity, support, sharing; divorce is accepted as a failure, without exclusion, and remarriage is possible.
- Islam. The nikah is a contract, with witnesses and a dower (mahr) owed by the husband to the wife, who remains its owner. The husband owes maintenance (nafaqa): housing, food, clothing; the wife owes, in classical law, cohabitation and "obedience" — a notion that many contemporary Muslim jurists reinterpret or reject. Polygamy is permitted up to four wives, on conditions of fairness, and forbidden by law in Türkiye and Tunisia. Divorce exists: repudiation by the husband (talaq), divorce requested by the wife (khul'), judicial divorce.
- Judaism. The marriage contract, the ketubah, lists the husband's duties: food, clothing and conjugal relations (onah); the wife owes cohabitation. Divorce exists through the get, which the husband hands to his wife — hence the problem of "chained" women (agunot) who are refused it; Reform Judaism is content with civil divorce.
- Hinduism. Marriage is a samskara, a rite of passage, sealed by the seven steps around the fire (saptapadi), each with a vow: nourishment, strength, prosperity, happiness, children, harmony, friendship. It is in principle indissoluble; in India the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 introduced divorce.
- Buddhism. Marriage is a civil matter, not a rite; the Sigalovada Sutta gives five duties of the husband (respect, courtesy, fidelity, trust in running the household, gifts) and five of the wife (running the home, hospitality, fidelity, guarding the property, skill).
Is same-sex marriage forbidden?
This is where the religions divide most sharply — and where several have moved in twenty years.
- Catholicism: no to marriage, yes to a blessing. Marriage remains defined as the union of a man and a woman. Since the declaration Fiducia supplicans (December 2023) a priest may bless a same-sex couple, simply and outside any rite resembling a wedding; several bishops' conferences in Africa and Eastern Europe have refused to apply it.
- Orthodoxy: no, with no known exception.
- Protestantism: it depends on the church. Same-sex couples are married by the Lutheran churches of Sweden (2009), Denmark (2012), Iceland (2015) and Norway (2017), most regional churches of Germany (EKD), the Church of Scotland (2022), the Episcopal Church of the United States (2015), the United Church of Canada and the Methodist Church of Great Britain; the United Protestant Church of France has blessed these couples since 2015; the Church of England has offered blessings since late 2023 but no marriage. Evangelical and Pentecostal churches oppose it.
- Islam: no in all schools; a few "inclusive" mosques in Europe and North America celebrate unions, at the margin.
- Judaism: it depends on the movement. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism celebrate these marriages; Conservative Judaism has allowed its rabbis to do so since 2012; Orthodoxy refuses. In Israel, where only religious marriage exists, these couples marry abroad and have the marriage registered.
- Hinduism and Buddhism: no doctrinal prohibition, but no established rite either; Hindu priests and Buddhist monks celebrate these unions in countries that recognise them — Taiwan since 2019, for instance — and the Supreme Court of India declined in 2023 to legalise them. The page on same-sex marriage and its country pages say what civil law allows, country by country.
Can you marry someone of another religion?
- Catholicism. Yes, with the bishop's permission for a "mixed marriage" (with a non-Catholic Christian) or a dispensation for "disparity of worship" (with an unbaptised person). The Catholic promises to keep the faith and to "do all in their power" to have the children baptised and raised in the Church; the other party is informed, without having to promise.
- Orthodoxy. Marriage with another baptised Christian is celebrated in church, with the commitment to raise the children in Orthodoxy; marriage with a non-Christian is not celebrated.
- Protestantism. Yes, almost always; ecumenical services — with a Catholic priest, for instance — are common.
- Islam. A Muslim man may marry a Jewish or Christian woman, "people of the Book"; a Muslim woman may, in classical law, marry only a Muslim — the future husband converts, and many countries of Islamic law make this rule a statute. Tunisia repealed it in 2017; Türkiye, whose marriage is civil, never applied it.
- Judaism. Orthodox and Conservative rabbis do not perform interfaith marriages; Reform rabbis may, each according to conscience. The child of a Jewish mother is Jewish (Orthodox, Conservative); American Reform Judaism also recognises the child of a Jewish father raised as a Jew.
- Hinduism. Tradition marries within the community; in India an interfaith marriage goes through the civil law of 1954 (Special Marriage Act) or through conversion, and some temples celebrate mixed unions.
- Buddhism. No obstacle.
Duties towards children
- Catholicism. Have the child baptised "within the first weeks" (canon 867) and raise it in the faith — canon 1136 makes it "the most grave obligation and the primary right" of parents: catechism, first communion, confirmation; godparents commit to it with them.
- Orthodoxy. Baptism and chrismation in infancy, communion of the very young, sponsorship.
- Protestantism. Infant baptism in the historic churches, with confirmation in adolescence; "dedication" of the child and later baptism at the age of choice among Baptists and evangelicals; in both cases religious instruction is a duty of the parents.
- Islam. The call to prayer whispered in the newborn's ear, the name given on the seventh day with the aqiqa sacrifice, circumcision of boys, learning prayer from the age of seven and the Qur'an; the child follows the father's religion, who owes maintenance, and the custody rules (hadana) entrust young children to the mother.
- Judaism. Circumcision of the boy on the eighth day (brit milah), the naming of the girl, education — the Talmud requires the father to teach Torah, a trade and "to swim" —, the bar mitzvah at thirteen and the bat mitzvah at twelve.
- Hinduism. A series of rites of passage: naming around the eleventh day, the first solid food, the first haircut, initiation with the sacred thread for boys of the upper castes; then education and, traditionally, the duty to marry one's children.
- Buddhism. The Sigalovada Sutta again: keep the child from evil, lead it to good, have it learn a trade, find it a suitable spouse, hand over the inheritance in due time — and the child's duties in return.
And before the law?
In secular states none of these rules is binding: the law sets the age, consent, the equality of spouses, divorce, parentage, and a religious marriage has effects only if it is also civil — in France the religious ceremony may not even precede the civil marriage. Elsewhere the religious marriage counts as a civil marriage (Italy, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, Greece…), or it is the only marriage there is (Israel, Lebanon, most Gulf and Maghreb countries). The page on the religious ceremony and its country pages give the rule of each country; those on civil marriage and on consent say what the law requires of every couple, whatever its religion.
