Christopher West Theology of the Body for Beginners

1. Christianity values the body because humans "can experience the spiritual world - in and through the physical world, in and through their bodies" (3).
2. Since Jesus is the Word made flesh, God's mystery is revealed to us in Jesus’ human body.
3. The exchange of sexual love between a husband and a wife to produce a child is the “earthly image” that resembles the "eternal exchange of love" between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
4. Spouses have to give themselves to each other completely in total self-giving love so that they may become one flesh just liked Jesus gave Himself completely in self-giving love to the Church.
5. In order to love each other like Christ loved us, married couples must express their love as free, total, faithful, and fruitful.

George Weigel, a Catholic theologian, thinks John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” “has barely begun to shape the Church’s theology, preaching, and religious education” and he predicts “it will compel a dramatic development of thinking about virtually every major theme in the Creed” (WH, pp. 336, 343, 853). Why is “Theology of the Body” such an important work and what effect could the Pope’s teaching have on future generations?

By reading John Paul II’s work, individuals can come to understand why the Pope thinks the body is such an important and essential part of theology. Many people think that Christianity often views the body as a bad thing and the spirit as the only holy thing. This is however very far from the truth! “As bodily creatures, this is in a certain sense the only way we can experience the spiritual world – in and through the physical world, in and through our bodies” (3). The physicality of the sacraments allows us to “intimately encounter God through our bodily senses” (4). The Pope says, “The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine” (Feb. 20, 1980).

To emphasize the idea that people needed to recognize the importance of the body, the Word was made flesh! “In “the body of Jesus ‘we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see’” (CCC, n. 477). On Christmas, “the mystery of a God took on human” form and Christians should no longer deny the theology of the flesh, the theology of the body (7). Through the life of Jesus “God has made himself known” (7). God did not need to send Jesus into the world, but He did it “out of sheer goodness and generosity. God wanted to create a great multitude of other persons to share in his own eternal, ecstatic exchange of love” (8).

To understand the type of love God wants to share with us, we have to understand the Trinity. The love shared between God the Father and His Son Jesus is the Holy Spirit. “God imprinted in our sexuality the call to participate in a “created version” of his eternal exchange of love” (8). The love shared between a husband and a wife can produce a child. This is therefore an earthly resemblance of the love poured out in the Holy Trinity.

The sexual love exchanged between a married couple is also supposed to reflect the relationship of Christ and the Church. Christ gave “up his body for his Bride (the Church) so that we might become “one flesh” with him” (9). Married couples are supposed to reflect the union of Christ and the Church and “to give themselves up for one another out of reverence for Christ” (81). The love between husbands and wives “must express the same free, total, faithful, fruitful love that Christ expresses” (91).

The Pope believes if people begin to follow this kind of theology, we can move from a “culture of death” to a “culture of life”. The idea of family will begin to flourish once again and cultures will “live the truth of love and life” (14). “The Father of Lies wants us to speak his own language with our bodies”, but God calls us to speak the language of truth and life instead (92).

How do John Paul II's ideas tie into the idea of Hauerwas' church? Does John Paul II embrace Anne Patrick's Liberation Theology or does he completely disregard her ideas?