Pope John Paul II on the Body: Human, Eucharistic, Ecclesial ed. by John M. Mcdermott, S.J., and John Gavin, S.J. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Pope john Paul II on the Body: Human, Eucharistic, Ecclesial. Edited by JOHN M. MCDERMOTT, S.J., and JOHN GAVIN, S.J. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph's University Press, 2006. Pp. 410. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-916101-54-1. While the subject of this volume is Pope John Paul Il's thought and teaching, it is a Festschrift in honor of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., and its contributors, with the exception of Cardinal Egan, who wrote the Preface, are all members of the Society ofJesus. Cardinal Dulles's contribution to the study of the late Holy Father's magisterium is reflected in two major contributions to this volume, which publishes the deliberations of the last two biennial Jesuit Conferences on the thought of Pope John Paul IL The book is richly complex, not only because it is a collection of essays that do not always pursue a sustained, systematic argument but also because the three senses of "body-human, Eucharistic, and ecclesial-are significantly different. Yet the unity of these three senses is not adventitious, since Christ's human body, his sacramental body, and his body the Church are each a means of being truly incorporated into the Person of Christ. Not Christ directly but the late pope's teaching is the point of reference for the book's discussions. The introduction situates the papal teaching as presented in the writings of Cardinal Dulles and therefore introduces a further complication by advancing a thesis not immediately germane to Wojtyla's thought. John M. McDermott, after presenting the historical context of U.S. Catholicism at the time of the Second Vatican Council, argues skillfully that the council should be read theologically as a conflict between conceptualist and transcendentalist methods. This insight is used to clarify theological presentations at points throughout the book, but neither Avery Dulles nor Karol Wojtyla fits easily into either camp. For neither thinker is theology a system of rational deductions, and for both the authority of divine revelation resists being relativized by subjective dynamisms. Convinced from the faith itselfthat the magisterium of pastors is necessary for the guidance of teachers of Catholic theology, Dulles became a primary interpreter of Pope John Paul's teaching. He contributes to this volume two articles in ecclesiology, one of which treats the Church as the body of Christ. Dulles's generous and clear exposition ofsometimes complex or even convoluted arguments in Wojtyla's writings also informs the approach of those contributors 475 476 BOOK REVIEWS who discuss Christ's sacramental body in the Eucharist and those who present the pope's theology of the human body as spousal. The theology of the body is ex.amined scripturally and anthropologically. Wojtyla's use of Scripture, especially in his theology of the body, has been criticized for moving too quickly or even illegitimately from the reconstruction of the human author's intention at the time a book was written to philosophical and doctrinal conclusions that seem, at best, to be extrapolations from the scriptural text. William S. Kurz points out that the pope teaches as a pastor and consults Scripture "precisely as Scripture, as God's revealed and inspired word and guidance for his people and as the Church's book." Thomas D. Stegman sees the papal treatment of Scripture as close to what the liturgists call "actualization," respecting the historical context but putting the text now into a setting that changes our lives. Stegman believes this approach to be legitimate, but he is critical of the pope for sometimes overreaching the text in his conclusions. The lengthy discussion of scriptural methodology in this section of the book is useful but it doesn't directly raise the question the pope himself asks: What are the truths about the human body to which Scripture gives written witness? From the standpoint of anthropological theory, the commentators examine the theology of the body in terms of causality and in terms of its being image or sign. These sections on the nature of matter, of subject, of solitude and marriage, of conscience and freedom pick up major components ofthe late pope's thinking and recast them in provocative ways. John Paul thought not only...