Gift and Communion: John Paul II's Theology of the Body

Introduction

Introduction The goal of this book is to present that aspect of theological anthropology which John Paul II himself referred to as “the theology of the body.”1 The primary source for the presented reflections is the 129 catecheses John Paul II delivered during his Wednesday general audiences in the Vatican from 5 September 1979 to 28 November 1984.2 From now on they will be referenced as the Wednesday catecheses on the theology of the body.3 The Wednesday catecheses were delivered in four cycles. Each of them reflects on a chosen Bible passage and concerns a related issue that is fundamental for the theology of the body. The first cycle, entitled “Christ appeals to the ‘Beginning’” and consisting of twenty-three catecheses, was delivered from 5 September 1979 to 2 April 1980. Its biblical basis is Christ’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, which hearkens back to Genesis: “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’?”4 The second cycle, entitled “Christ appeals to the human heart” xvii 1. John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, translation , introduction, and index by Michael Waldstein (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2006). Hereafter quoted as TB. 2. George Weigel, Witness to Hope: Biography of the Pope John Paul II (New York: Cliff Street Books, 1999), 334–43. 3. The term “Wednesday catecheses,” so long as it is not further specified, refers to the Wednesday Catecheses on the Theology of the Body. 4. Mt 19:4. All biblical quotations and references come from New Revised Standard Version (Oxford University Press, 1991). xviii Introduction and consisting of forty papal catecheses, began 16 April 1980 and ended 6 May 1981. The Sermon on the Mount is the inspiration for the papal reflections in this cycle,5 especially the teaching that “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”6 The third cycle, entitled “Christ appeals to the resurrection” and consisting of twenty-three catecheses , began 11 November 1981 and finished on 21 July 1982. This cycle is based on Christ’s discussion with the Sadducees regarding the levirate law and the resurrection to come.7 The fourth and last cycle of the papal catecheses on the theology of the body is devoted to the sacramentality of marriage and to deliberations on the encyclical Humanae vitae of Paul VI (1968). It consists of forty-three papal addresses and lasted exceptionally long; it began 28 July 1982, was interrupted for about one year (from 9 February 1983 to 23 May 1984) when during his general audiences the pope chose to focus on the meaning of the Holy Year of Redemption being celebrated that year, and was then completed on 28 November 1984. Two books of the Old Testament constitute the biblical sources for the papal deliberations in the fourth cycle of catecheses, the Song of Songs and the Book of Tobit, as well as a passage of the Letter to the Ephesians concerning the sacramentality of marriage.8 The papal theology of the body, as presented in the catecheses, has been widely praised. George Weigel considers the work “one of the boldest reconfigurations of Catholic theology in centuries” and writes that the papal theology of the body is “a theological time bomb” that will go off with dramatic and positive consequences for the Church. The Wednesday catecheses are thus “a decisive moment in exorcising the Manichaean demon and its deprecation of 5. Mt 5:1–7, 28; Lk 6:12–49. 6. Mt 5:28. 7. Mt 22:24–30; Mk 12:18–27; Lk 20:27–40. 8. Eph 5:21–33. Introduction xix human sexuality from Catholic moral theology.”9 Simultaneously, according to Weigel, the pope’s theology of the body “is the most creative Christian response to the sexual revolution and its ‘pulverization ’ of the human person ever articulated.”10 Another commentator on the pope’s thought, Walter Schu, writes that the theology of the body presented by John Paul II “truly opens a new horizon for all married persons and families.”11 Renowned Austrian moral theologian Bishop Andreas Laun states that the teaching of John Paul II about human sexuality and love “leaves behind everything which has been said about this issue thus far during the twenty centuries of the history of Christianity...