161 Augustine’s Doubts on Divorce: Reconsiderations on Remarriage David G. Hunter University of Kentucky Abstract: Augustine’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage profoundly in- luenced the Western Christian tradition on the matter of divorce and remarriage. Augustine famously insisted that while divorce was allowed in limited circumstances (e.g., on account of adultery by one of the spouses), remarriage was prohibited for both the guilty and the innocent parties. Less frequently acknowledged is the degree to which Augustine expressed doubt about the validity of his own teaching. In this essay I argue that even though Augustine offered a strict interpretation of the biblical evidence, he did so only tentatively and often expressed doubts about the adequacy of his own views. The reason for this hesitation, I suggest, was Augustine’s knowledge that the meaning of the scriptural texts was ambiguous at best and that a signiicant portion of the previous tradition differed from the interpretation he favored. Introduction Augustine’s contributions to the development of a Catholic theology of marriage are, on the whole, well known. He famously taught that there were “three goods” in marriage—procreation (proles), mutual idelity (ides), and the permanence of the bond (sacramentum)—and these teachings became a permanent resource for theologians and canonists in the Middle Ages and well beyond. For example, as recently as two years ago, in the lead up to the Synod of Bishops in Rome, Augustine’s authority was invoked as the source of the Catholic tradition on the indissolubility of marriage. Father Robert Dodaro, contrasting Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic traditions in this matter, has stated: Augustinian Studies 48:1–2 (2017) 161–182 doi: 10.5840/augstudies201741827