Theology Of The Body Explained

Theology of the Body Explained

Theology is the study of God and of religious truth. The words 'religious truth' usually fall on deaf ears in our modern day world, but to a chosen few, these two words can be life changing. The word truth, in religious terms, can lead a person to salvation or damnation. Truth, metaphorically speaking, can be like a light enriching its followers with the rays of wisdom, much like the complete and infallible truth of the Catholic Church. It can be obscured, however, and perverted to fit the weaknesses of certain peoples and nations. For example, in the 16th century the truth was forever obscured to fit the weaknesses of one, Martin Luther, a renegade Catholic priest who molded church teachings and sacred scripture to fit his uncontrollable vices, mainly pride and sensuality. For years, certain groups working under the title of 'Catholic' have pressured local Bishops, as well as Rome, for things such as: an abolition of clerical celibacy, female priests, a democratic and representative church, anti-clericalism and other such heretical ideas taught by Luther. These ideas blatantly go against Church Doctrine and Sacred Scripture; therefore many faithful Catholics have realized their errors and have spoken out against them. However, there are other such teachings that have infiltrated the Church that strongly appear to be Catholic and have attracted to themselves popular cults and sects. The biggest modern day error that has been accepted as authentic "Catholic" teaching is Theology of the Body. This 'Anti-Theology' Theology is a compilation of 129 weekly talks given by Pope John Paul II between 1979 and 1984. In an attempt to conform to modern day thinkers and Catholic modernists, John Paul II took it upon himself to redefine Church teaching on things such as marriage, sexuality and the human body. But, he also presented an almost Gnostic teaching on Christ and brought about a denial of Original Sin. This denial, along with other errors, makes Theology of the Body one of the most dangerous attacks on traditional Church teaching. This attack, in turn, will systematically destroy the concept of chastity and purity within the Church and will bring about a kind of idolatry in the form of self-deification. Therefore, this essay will bring out the errors of Theology of the Body, it will use Thomism as its grounds for truth and it will spell out what will happen if this movement isn't swiftly dealt with.

To understand what this Theology is and what it means for the future of the Catholic Church, we must first understand how it came into being. At the turn of the century, the 20th century that is, the world was thrown into a whirlwind of innovation. Whether it be in the technological or medical spectrum, every means of necessity was evolving. Unfortunately, the two highest and most revered of all sciences, philosophy and theology, were being destroyed by nihilism, moral relativism, deism, pantheism and existentialism. However, all of those false schools of thought were not nearly as damaging as the reawakening of Gnosticism in the form of Manichaeism. This form of Gnostic teaching was an early heresy rebuked by early church fathers and made anathema by the ancient Popes. Manichaeism preaches that the body is the prison for a divine spark, kind of like a chip off of God's shoulder, literally. Because of this, the body is looked down upon and scoffed as being evil. All forms of sexuality, therefore, are to be avoided and procreation is a tolerated evil, even though a pregnant woman is always considered to be possessed by the devil. This erroneous error, however, was only one aggressor of the church. With the onset of contraception and the reign of free love, the sexual revolution presented itself as quite the stumbling block for Christendom. Add to that the fact that a very large portion of Catholics, around 90%, agreed with or used contraception and prophylactics, the church was in a serious crisis. Even after the publication of his encyclical against contraception, Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI still recognized that the "Smoke of Satan has entered the Church". An answer was needed to clarify what the church's teaching on sexuality was, for souls were falling to heresy or vice on a daily basis. In 1979, the newly elected Pope John Paul II gave the answer in his weekly talks and Theology of the Body was born.

This new Doctrine was very convincing and well versed in Scripture. It reaffirmed the churches teaching on things such as divorce, sexual intercourse, mortal sin as it pertains to the human body, homosexuality and other such deeply rooted biblical issues concerning sexuality. The dogmatic interpretation of this Theology basically is as follows. Because Jesus Christ incarnated himself as human, the body is therefore a gateway to the divine. In the body, we see the covenant that God started with Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus in its entirety. The male and female relationship, concerning sexuality, alludes to Christ's marriage to the Church and also to the self-donating love of the Holy Trinity. It labeled both forms of error listed above as perversions of the truth. The sexual revolution was looked upon as a kind of immediate self-glorification and the Gnostic revival as a sort of disordered vision of what real sexuality is.

Many people were enthralled by this new Theology and many people saw it as an answer to the problems of our day. It showed a very conservative and Catholic stand point on sexuality as revealed in the Bible, especially the Book of Genesis. It brings to light the relationship between the union of a male and a female in matrimony and that of the marriage between Christ and his Church. This, to any devout modern Catholic, would seem to be a great leap in the right direction for the church in the face of the degradation of today's society. But nothing is perfect and, as I will now illustrate, Theology of the Body leaves us with many more questions than answers.

Before going into those questions, I must first elaborate on what I stated earlier. Theology of the Body was created by the Pope to come to a compromise with the two aforesaid heresies plaguing the church. But, the Pope specifically made this Theological compromise in a modern way as to attract the younger laity to the Church. With this said, you must know that Catholic youth, like everybody else, have passions and sexual desires. This is why this new theology is so monumentally dangerous. Take, for example, a walk on the beach during the summer. You spot a woman in a thong bikini and everyone around you is gawking at her. With voluptuous breasts and a very tight body, it is literally impossible to resist thinking about her in a sexual way if looking straight at her. However, using the implications of Theology of the