Hildebrand Press

The Encyclical Humanae Vitae: A Sign of Contradiction

Paperback · ISBN 9781939773135 · Foreword by Tracey Rowland

$11.99 USD

Sale Sold out

Format Paperback

Read a sample

Published only months after Paul VI promulgated the encyclical, this was among the first substantial defenses of Humanae Vitae by a Catholic intellectual of public stature. Hildebrand roots the Church's teaching on contraception in the meaning of marriage and the conjugal act as total self-donation. This anniversary edition carries a new foreword by Tracey Rowland.

Also available on Amazon

View full details

I would recommend that catechists and others utilize Hildebrand’s book as a teaching aid in the attempt to help the faithful understand the goodness of Church teaching in a way that inspires in them the desire to strive to live according to it out of an awareness of the happiness it promises, which is also a superabundant gift of living

As one of the first advocates for appreciating the unitive dimension of sex, his wisdom in this book offers readers a relevant insight to the contemporary discussion of Catholicism’s view of sexuality.

Like many of Hildebrand’s other short works, this book is small enough to let you get through it in no time, and deep enough to keep you thinking about it long afterwards.

To read The Encyclical Humanae Vitae: A Sign of Contradiction by Dietrich von Hildebrand some five decades later is a very consoling experience. It bears testimony to the fact that at least one Catholic married man had the necessary spiritual and intellectual capital to make the right judgment call and explain it within the broader context of the Church’s understanding of the sacrament of marriage and the work of the human conscience.