Studying The Theology Of The Body.

[Innocent]

I am going to start studying this work. I know Christopher West has written some good derivative works, but I will not be able to obtain them for various reasons. (Non-availability, no credit card, etc.,)

So I'll be studying the original audience transcripts of Pope John Paul II.

I'll be using this as a source:

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2TBIND.HTM"][color="#FF0000"][b]JOHN PAUL II'S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY (129 general audiences) from EWTN.com[/b][/color][/url]

The entire 129 lectures are available online as a single pdf file:

Go to [url="http://www.catholicprimer.org/library/index.htm"][color="#2E8B57"][b]this web-page[/b][/color][/url] and scroll down till you reach "John Paul II – Pope", and the last but one file is a pdf document of his The Theology of the Body. It is more convenient than the separate audiences at the EWTN website, since, it being a pdf file, one can search through the audiences more easily. It is also easier to print out, if you wish to do so.

There are many more interesting Catholic classics at that website, as you can see.

Edited September 25, 2007 by Innocent

[Innocent]

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb1.htm"]1. Of the Unity and Indissolubility of Marriage[/url]
[quote]On 5 September 1979, in the first of his General Audiences on the Theology of the Body, the Holy Father expounded the words of Christ, "In the beginning the Creator made them male and female."[/quote]

In this I learn that Christ shows that the earliest Revelation ("in the beginning") shows the sanctity of marriage and that it is not a breakable bond. The earliest Revelation. I never thought of it that way.

A juridical or [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casuistry"][color="#FF0000"]casuist[/color][/url][url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03415d.htm"][color="#0000FF"]ical[/color][/url] approach would have lead to many complications. Jesus bypasses this complex solutions by a simple appeal to the earliest Revelation -- "The Beginning".

Here the talk ended. Now what? Christ gives the questioners (and us) opportunity to reflect on "The Beginning". This is something to be studied and reflected upon deeply, so that we can understand better what Christ meant.

Christ quotes Gen. 1:27 and Gen 2: 24. But wait, he doesn't stop with merely quoting that piece of Scripture. To that, he adds, "So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." What is the impact of this addition?
Thus Christ has thus shown that Gen 2:24 "sets forth the principle of the unity and indissolubility of marriage as the very content of the Word of God, expressed in the most ancient revelation." Thus this Genesis text has been given a [url="http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm#H2"][color="#FF0000"]Norm[/color][/url][url="http://www.moralphilosophy.info/normativeethics.html"][color="#008000"]ative[/color][/url] significance by Christ!

All right, so Christ has given a new Normative dimension to an ancient Scriptural text, so is this the end of this episode? It does not seem so. He repeatedly uses the words "From the Beginning", thus indicating that he wishes his questioners to reflect upon this more, to understand the mystery of the way of the creation of man, created male and female. We too, should reflect on this.

[thessalonian]

Wow. Great site. Thanks.