BOOK REVIEW: Theology of the Body for Beginners

April 20, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: This book review is sponsored by the Religious Education Media Center as a service to those interested in developing their own spirituality. Books featured in this column can be borrowed from the diocesan media center.

You may request this or other books by writing Deacon Larry Sitzman, Religious Education Media Center, 1821 Jackson St., Sioux City, IA 51102, e-mail him at larrys@scdiocese.org or phone (712) 255-7933.

Father Thomas J. Topf, pastor at St. Michael Church in Kingsley, reviewed Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West. It was published by Ascension Press, 153 pages, paperback.

"Theology of the body" is the working title Pope John Paul gave to the first major teaching project of his pontificate. In 129 short talks that he delivered between September of 1979 and November of 1984, the pope offered the Church and the world a rich, biblical reflection on the meaning of the human body, particularly as it concerns sexuality and erotic desire.

The author, Christopher West later wrote a 500-page commentary on John Paul II's revolutionary teaching on the body and sexual love. Since that book was so large and more academic in style, Mr. West was persuaded to write a smaller-scale introduction that conveys the essentials of the Pope's teaching. Thus, the Theology of the Body for Beginners came into existence.

In the early chapters of the book the Holy Father describes God's original plan for the body and sex by referring to Adam and Eve before their fall. It was there that the first man and woman discovered what the Pope calls "the nuptial meaning of the body." They learned that the nuptial meaning of the body (also called marital, spousal, or conjugal love) is the love of total self-donation. The nuptial meaning of the body is the "capacity of expressing love: that love precisely in which the person becomes a gift and-by means of this gift--fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence." (From Pope John Paul's talk on Jan. 16, 1980). It is a participation of the body and soul in the love of God and the love of Christ and the Church.

In chapter four the Holy Father moves on to the resurrection of the body, i.e. what it will be like in heaven. We are assured that a person's soul and body will ultimately be re-united in heaven since God created us as a union of body and soul. Christ's words, "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Mt 22:30), point us to the "Ultimate Marriage", the embrace of God for all who seek it in faith.

This means the love and beauty of human marriage is an "icon", a profound and beautiful sign of something infinitely greater. Christ is saying you no longer will need a forshadowing to point you to heaven when you are in heaven. You are there. The ultimate union has come. When we lose sight of this infinitely greater union we inevitably treat the icon (human sex) as an idol, which is the plight of today's secular world.

The next chapter is entitled "Christian Celibacy: A Marriage Made in Heaven." Here the pope points out that freely chosen celibacy is not a rejection of sexuality. Rather those who remain celibate for the kingdom "skip" the earthly sacrament of marriage in anticipation of the heavenly reality, the "marriage of the Lamb." Christian celibacy reveals that the ultimate fulfillment of solitude is found only in union with God. Christopher West writes, "Perhaps we would do better to define this vocation in terms of what it embraces and anticipates versus what it gives up. It embraces and anticipates 'the heavenly marriage.'" Pope John Paul II writes that the fidelity and "total self-donation" lived by married spouses provide a model for the fidelity and self-donation required of those who choose the celibate vocation. Both vocations in their own way express marital or conjugal love, which entails "the total gift of oneself." (April 14, 1982).

In chapter six John Paul speaks about Christian marriage itself. Quoting St. Paul from Ephesians he writes about the mutual subjection and reverence for Christ that enhances marriage. He adds that being "subject" to one's spouse means to be "completely given." Therefore mutual subjection means "a reciprocal donation of self" (Aug. 11, 1982.) Christopher West adds, "Ultimately all questions of sexual morality come down to one very simple question: Does this sexual act truly image God's free, total, faithful, fruitful love or does it not" If it does not, it is counterfeit love that can never satisfy."

The seventh chapter is a splendid expression of the liberating sexual morality that was taught by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical letter of 1968 entitled Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life). This chapter describes the real possibility of developing a marital spirituality that will allow couples to refrain from artificial contraception and thereby bring their relationship and loving behavior to a state of being free, total, faithful and "open to life." The rationale and details for accomplishing this are beautifully outlined in this chapter.

The final chapter focuses on the need to share the Theology of the Body with others. Pope John Paul II calls it the "New Evangelization." The author Christopher West adds "If we share this hope with the world, together, we shall not fall short of renewing the face of the earth." In a very convincing and uplifting way this book describes the value of Christmas Marriage, Christian Celibacy, and the role of the human body in our salvation.