Body Talk: A Theology of the Body in Irenaeus and John Paul II

Deacon Keith A Fournier
© Third Millennium, LLC

"I'm saying all the things that I know you'll like, making good conversation-I took you to an intimate restaurant, then to a suggestive movie -There's nothing left to talk about unless it's horizontally. CHORUS: "Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical, let's get into physical. Let me hear your body talk, your body talk, let me hear your body talk" ---"Let's get Physical," Olivia Newton John

Introduction

Although Olivia Newton John had a long musical career, most people remember this performer for one song--the lyrics of which offer an insight into contemporary culture and its’ misguided view of the human body and human sexuality. Sadly, this view of the body and sexual activity is reflective of the debasement of contemporary western culture. In his encyclical letter entitled "The Gospel of Life", the late Pope John Paul II addressed what he referred to as the "profound crisis of culture." The lyrics to this popular song point to one of the roots of this crisis, a utilitarian and instrumentalist view of both the human body and a libertine approach to human sexuality. Yet, they also pose a question. Do our bodies, at least symbolically, "talk"? If so, what are we saying?

Pope John Paul II developed a number of unique phrases in his work in the area of theological anthropology; one was his reference to what he called the "language of the body", a vision for the body/soul relationship that reflects a high regard for the dignity of the body, a view that is dramatically different than what is reflected within this piece of contemporary culture. If our bodies do, at least in a symbolic sense, "talk", then the more vital question that we should be asking is what are we saying with and through them?

The current age, like others before it, offers a counterfeit notion of a freedom that is unconnected to truth and unaffected by the obligations of human solidarity. It also presents an approach to the human body and human sexuality that is often nothing more than a new libertinism that has embraced a counterfeit notion of freedom. At the root of these errors is an understanding of the nature of the human person – an anthropology- which is at odds with the Christian vision of the integrated human person. It is not new or particularly "modern" or "post modern". I would maintain that it is, more accurately, neo-pagan in its approach.

New Dualisms

Like the world of the first four centuries of Christian history, our age offers its own forms of dualism. It still struggles from the effects of early ideas which were prevalent in the ancient cultures into which the Gospel was proclaimed. These ideas led to challenges within the early Church, and, in some instances, promoted and fostered heresies with which she still struggles. Presenting a libertine and instrumentalist approach to the body as somehow liberating, the concepts crudely expressed in this song, promote a form of slavery to unbridled sensual passions. If embraced, they can lead to a loss of authentic human freedom. More tragically, this kind of instrumentalist approach to the body and human sexuality can also obscure the truth concerning the beauty and dignity of the human person in his/her fullness as an integrated "body/person."

The Christian claim is that we do not just "have a body", (in the sense of the body as something separate from the soul or the self), but rather, that we are a body/soul composite in unity. This unity is ontological. The challenge of articulating the full implications of this truth afresh in the Third Christian Millennium is one of the greatest missionary challenges facing the Church.

This Christian claim stands in contrast to any errant version of anti-material dualism, affirming instead the full dignity of the human body in the light of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In our creed, we profess a fundamental belief that we, like Him, will one day have resurrected bodies! Orthodox Christianity teaches that we human persons are, in a sense, en-souled bodies or, in another way of viewing the same truth, em-bodied souls; the two, body and soul, cannot - and must not - be separated. It is only recently that the body has been considered as a separate area of theological inquiry and discussion.

Questions have resonated throughout the two millennia of Christian history concerning what our Resurrected bodies will look like, of what they will be composed and, whether or not it can be said that the body is a part of how we actually image the God who created us to live, both in this world and the next? The extraordinary claim of the Incarnation is that God the Son, the Word made flesh, came into our midst bodily and, is seated now, bodily, at the right hand of the Father! Thus, through the Incarnation, the body has, in the words of Pope John Paul II "entered theology" in profound ways.

No Rejection of Matter

In the context of one of his apostolic letters entitled "The Light of the East" the late Pope John Paul addressed his hope for a full communion of the Church, East and West. In discussing particular insights derived from the Eastern Christian Divine Liturgy he also addressed one of the considerations of theological anthropology, the body:

"Christianity does not reject matter. Rather, bodiliness is considered in all its value in the liturgical act, whereby the human body is disclosed in its inner nature as a temple of the Spirit and is united with the Lord Jesus, who himself took a body for the world's salvation. This does not mean, however, an absolute exaltation of all that is physical, for we know well the chaos which sin introduced into the harmony of the human being. The liturgy reveals that the body, through the mystery of the Cross, is in the process of transfiguration, pneumatization: on Mount Tabor Christ showed his body radiant, as the Father wants it to be again.

Cosmic reality also is summoned to give thanks because the whole universe is called to recapitulation in Christ the Lord. This concept expresses a balanced and marvelous teaching on the dignity, respect and purpose of creation and of the human body in particular. With the rejection of all dualism and every cult of pleasure as an end in itself, the body becomes a place made luminous by grace and thus fully human."

This relationship between the human soul (psyche) and the human body (soma), as well as the effects of what the Christian Scriptures call the "flesh" (sarx), lies at the heart of theological anthropology. The relationship of body, soul and will within the God-Man Jesus Christ has become the model for inquiry about the entire subject throughout the tradition and in the early councils such as Chalcedon (451). How the Church views the integration of body and soul has also undergone development within the tradition.

In this essay I will discuss a recent development within the field of theological anthropology, the work of the late John Paul II. However, one caveat must be made in the inception of this discussion. In the midst of all the growing enthusiasm concerning the formidable theological and philosophical contributions made by the late Pope, there can be a tendency to treat his anthropological insights as something new. I maintain that, though they are rich and profound, they are more accurately a development of the ancient tradition. For that reason, I will first turn to one of the great voices of that ancient tradition, the Bishop of Lyon, Ireneaeus.

Ireneaeus of Lyons and the Gnostics

"For that which He [i.e. Christ] has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole"

Ireneaeus was born in Asia Minor in the year 125. While a young man, he met the Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp, (A.D. 69-155), who had known the Apostles. This meeting had a profound influence upon Ireneaeus. Through it he felt directly connected to the apostles. One finds this source of authority relied upon by Ireneaus at the beginning of his seminal work, "Against Heresies." In this work he confronts, exposes and opposes the writings of the "Christian" Gnostics, grounding his authority in his direct connection to the Apostles. For example, He speaks of the Apostle John as "He, the Lord's disciple, the very one who had rested on his breast (Jn 13:23, 21:20), (who) himself published a Gospel while he was living at Ephesus in Asia"

To Irenaeus, this Gospel of the beloved disciple John, like those of Matthew, Mark and Luke (which he also mentions in the same chapter) is the ultimate source of authority in confronting this heresy, because it is a direct witness to the teaching of the Lord Himself. He saw himself right within that tradition -with Polycarp, John and the Apostles - defending the truths of the Catholic faith against those who threatened orthodoxy and orthopraxy in his century. He noted that Polycarp had also encountered these same false teachers during his ministry in Rome: "He (Polycarp) it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics(back) to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles".

Extreme Body / Soul Dualism

These Christian Gnostics (including Valentinian, Basilides and Marcion) taught an extreme form of body/soul dualism, that man was entrapped within the body, as well as within the material universe, as if in a prison. This prison was ruled by a "demiurge." Above the material world of the "aeons" and the cosmos, there was a God, though not a creator God as in orthodox Christian teaching. It was this God who sent Jesus Christ as Savior. Jesus had not truly assumed a body of flesh in the Incarnation, nor did He truly experience death on the cross. He offered a different kind of "salvation", through imparting "gnosis", a secret knowledge, which enabled a select few men to comprehend and discern the struggle between evil and good, which was a struggle between matter and spirit, and engage in this struggle. The path to "salvation" was to become divested of both the body and the material world.

Exposing and opposing this errant re-interpretation of Christianity became a primary part of the mission of Ireneaeus. It led to the composition of Adversus Haereses (Against the Heresies). The full title reveals more clearly the massive effort, "Detection and Refutation of the False Gnosis." This work was borne of the challenges presented by this group of errant teachers. It’s positive teaching on the body, the unity and integrity of the whole human person, and its integrated approach to the fullness of the effects of the Redemption of the whole person in and through Jesus Christ, including the bodily resurrection, provides an ancient patristic ground within which we can position the late John Paul’s contribution to theological anthropology known popularly as "the Theology of the Body."

Early Dialogue and Engagement

As in other challenges to orthodoxy, the development of a Christian vision of the integrated human person, including the body, was refined through an interlocutory dialogue with the thought and the culture of the age, as the Church engaged in her continuing mission. Often in history, this dialogue takes the form of a response to an adversarial challenge which requires a defense of orthodoxy and orthopraxy, such as it did for Irenaeus. This dialogue and defense produced much of the writing that forms the earliest Christian Patristic sources and led to the pronouncements of the early Church Councils.

The early Fathers shared a conviction that mans’ struggle to live the fullness of the Christian life, and his failures in doing so, did not comport with God’s original plan and purpose in creation. Why this is so, how this came about and the redemptive effects of the Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection, Transfiguration and Ascension of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ the God-Man, upon the human person, is thus the subject of much of the Patristic literature.

Soma / Sarx

St. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, made a distinction within his letters to the early churches, one that is integral to this discussion. He used two Greek words, soma and sarx. By soma was meant, in the words a contemporary commentary:

" … (the) person as a whole. It includes the physical external dimension of human personhood, including sexuality, but it does not mean only the physical. The soma is the basis for human life in the world, but it is ultimately meant for God (see 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 5: 6-8). Soma is connected with but not identified with sarx, which may be better translated as "flesh," in the sense of human weakness and mortality. In Paul’s understanding, sarx is what separates us from God. This is not to say that human physicality is inherently evil, but rather that in their fallen state, human beings are weak, alienated from God, vulnerable to sin. Sarx is symbolic of this human frailty. To live "according to the flesh" is not merely to live carnally, but to live according to oneself, the law rather than the gospel, in separation from God (see Rom. 7:18; 2Cor. 4:11). Ultimately the body (soma not sarx) will be raised up as God raised up Christ".

The challenges faced in the early centuries of Christianity as the Church went forth into the nations, provided a kind of "air" or context within which rich philosophical and theological insights were deepened through reflection, articulated out of pastoral concern, and then recorded for later posterity. This is still the case with theology in our own age, such as the insights found within the contribution of Pope John Paul II in the field of theological anthropology.

In an insightful document entitled "Toward a Pastoral Approach to Culture", the Pontifical Council for Culture (A Vatican Missions Council) addressed the contemporary challenge faced in the evangelization of cultures:

"From the time the Gospel was first preached, the Church has known the process of encounter and engagement with cultures, (Fides et Ratio n.70), for it is one of the properties of the human person, that he can achieve true and full humanity, only by means of culture (Gaudium et Spes, n. 53). In this way, the Good News, which is Christ's Gospel for all men and the whole human person, both child and parent of the culture in which they are immersed, (Fides et ratio, n.71), reaches them in their own culture, which absorbs their manner of living the faith and is in turn gradually shaped by it."

Recapitualtion / Resurrection

In the second century, these "Christian" Gnostics gained a following which threatened orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The common thread connecting the various schools of this multi-faceted heresy was a negative view of both the material world and the human body. Matter was taught to be the source of mans struggle and difficulties in life. In claiming that neither matter nor the human body could be redeemed, the Gnostics preached what the Apostle Paul simply called "a different gospel".

It was to these serious challenges that Ireneaus addressed his treatise, directly, adeptly and adroitly refuting the claims of these teachers. In so doing, he also set forth an anthropology that affirmed the dignity of the human body and the redemption of the whole person in Jesus Christ, a positive soteriological vision, he called "recapitulation", which included the revivification of the human body by the Holy Spirit at the Resurrection.

Recapitulation is a development of the teaching of the Apostle Paul, set forth in his letters to the early churches such as Ephesus, Thessalonica, Corinth and Philippi. It involves the restoration of everything in Christ, the one Head, the "New Adam" in which creation and all of humanity was first begun, and in whom, through the Incarnation, it has begun again. The Church is His Body, His fullness, and He is alive through His Resurrection. Membership in the Church is essential to the fullness of salvation. The Church is both visible and invisible. Within that Church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head, we are transformed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. To Ireneaus, the Word of God made flesh, the God-Man Jesus Christ, is the Alpha and the Omega, who unites the end with the beginning. He is the harvester of the seed that was sown in the beginning:

"For as by one man’s disobedience sin entered, and death obtained (a place) through sin; so also by the obedience of one man, righteousness having been introduced, shall cause life to fructify in those persons who in times past were dead. … He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receives a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam (into Himself), from Mary, who was as yet a virgin.

Also, the Church is the place where this redemptive transformation occurs. It is the place of the Spirit, through which we are recreated in Christ. (I Cor.12:28) In that Church we find the offices established by the head, through which we are taught, and the sacraments through which we are recreated by grace. To Ireneaus, "where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God and, where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every kind of grace" There, in the Bosom of the Church, we find and follow the Lord "… the only true and steadfast teacher, the Word of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself"

In one of the strongest defenses of the Resurrection of the Body within the Patristic sources, Irenaeus wrote against his Gnostic opponent’s efforts to misread these words of St. Paul addressed to the Christians at Corinth concerning the resurrection of the body. In fact, these very words became the foundation of his own defense of the bodily resurrection:

"…So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one. (I Cor. 15: 42-49)

Though certainly not alone in his defense of the importance and dignity of the body in the early Patristic sources, Irenaeus represents one of the strongest and clearest treatments of the dignity of the human body. He insists upon its integral and corporeal position within the fullness of the work of the redemption of the whole person. His teaching presents a vibrant stream within the tradition which was later developed. It is this developing stream into which the late Pope John Paul II would wade almost two millennia later.

Several themes within the corpus of this early Father, Irenaeus of Lyon, correspond to themes that are developed in the late Popes’ "Theology of the Body." Let us consider a few.

Image and likeness of God

Irenaeus, like other early Fathers, distinguished between the "Image" of God in man and the "likeness" of God, which was lost by sin. This is restored in and through Jesus Christ, the New Adam. He argued against the anti-material anthropology, soteriology and cosmology of the Gnostics of his day throughout this treatise, insisting that a form exists in matter and that matter has a symbolic, and a revelatory function. This concept is also found in Pope John Paul’s Theology of the Body. In both, the archetype of the Image of the invisible and immaterial God is Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son, in whom we find reveled the Father, as well as the Fathers’ plan for every human person.

This hermeneutic concerning the Incarnation and its implications provided the hinge for the theological anthropology of the entire Second Vatican Council, as well as post-Conciliar work. This Council is the framework for the late Pope John Paul’s work. He is often called the Pope of the Second Vatican Council. This insight concerning jesus revealing both the Father and redeemed man is set forth, among other places, in "Joy and Hope" (Gaudium et Spes), the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

Irenaeus’ vision of the human person in the process of redemption, transformation, transfiguration which is a recapitulation in Christ through the Holy Spirit not only helped to silence and overcome the influence of the Gnostics of his day but still informs the foundations of an adequate anthropology within which to address the threats to orthodox Christianity in our own. This is reflected in the work of the Second Vatican Council. It is interesting to note that Ireneaeus is cited by the Council fourteen times. The only other Church father who is cited more is St. Augustine. He is also regularly cited in the late Pontiffs encyclicals and apostolic letters and exhortations.

There is little doubt that the teaching of Ireneaeus on recapitulation informed the late Popes theological anthrologology, which reached its fullness in his "theology of the Body. In his address to the faculty on the importance of Ireneaeus, John Paul emphasized these words from Against Heresies, which, I believe, aptly summarize the synthesis of Ireneaeus’ Christological anthropology as well as that of Pope John Paul’s:

"…His only begotten Word, who is always present with the human race, united to and mingled with His own creation, according to the Father’s pleasure, and who became flesh, is Himself Jesus Christ our Lord, who did also suffer for us, and rose again on our behalf, and who will come again in the glory of His Father, to raise up all flesh, and for the manifestation of salvation…. There is therefore, as I have pointed out, one God the Father, and one Christ Jesus, who came by means of the whole dispensational arrangements (connected with Him),… gathered together all things in Himself. But in every respect too, He is man, the formation of God; and thus He took up man into Himself, the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible being made comprehensible, the impassable becoming capable of suffering, and the Word being made man, thus summing up all things in Himself: so that as in super-celestial, spiritual, and invisible things, the Word of God is supreme, so also in things visible and corporeal He might possess the supremacy, and, taking to Himself the pre-eminence, as well as constituting Himself head of the Church, he might draw all things to Himself at the proper time"

In an article entitled "Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement" John Behr noted:

"That which Adam lost in the apostasy was the strength of the breath of life, which would have kept Adam immortal, and his ‘natural and childlike mind’ or the ‘robe of holiness from the Spirit’, and both of these are the expressions or results of man seeing God through the creation, recognizing the fact that he is created and therefore dependent upon his Creator, an attitude of thankfulness and obedience. It is this recognition and disposition that enables man to live, whether animated by the breath of life or vivified directly by the life creating Spirit. The truly living man is the glory of God, and this is the one who was fashioned in the image and likeness of God. Having lost the strength of the breath, mans life is now mortal. But in Christ man has been given the possibility of living by seeing the Father, by receiving, as an adopted son, a pledge of the Spirit which prepares him to be fully vivified by the Spirit in a permanent fashion, thus rendering the likeness secure."

This hopeful vision of the ongoing work of redemption which characterizes Ireneaus, also summarizes the writings and teaching of the late Pope John Paul II. It is to his contributions and, in particular what is popularly called his "Theology of the Body" that we now turn.

Theology of the Body

As a very young man, I spent nearly almost two years in a Benedictine monastery where I studied under a wise Abbot. He introduced me to some of the early Patristic writings. Whenever we discussed contemporary "novel" theological insights, he was quite fond of telling me: "If it is new, it is suspect." Was this an overstatement on his part? Perhaps. But, like much what of what he taught me, it has proven to be a useful guide for many years. In examining allegedly "new" insights in theology, it is important to find these insights affirmed, of course within the Sacred Scripture, but also within the reflections of the early Fathers.

Bringing Forth Both New and Old

In the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, after having instructed the crowd in parables, Jesus is asked by His disciples to explain why he used parables. He then asks the disciples his own question:

"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied: "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."

In considering the late Pope John Paul’s "Theology of the Body", it is important to note that it is, rather than simply something novel, an application of this biblical passage. It is, in a theological sense, both a reflection on the old and a presentation of the new- both of which are drawn from the one source. In our treatment of the writing of Irenaeus (120-202 A.D.), we found similar insights as we find in Pope John Paul II. That is because, as a faithful scribe, the late Pope drew from "both the old and the new."

As Bishop of Krakow, Poland, Karol Wojtyla was not only a respected Churchman but a noted playwright, philosopher and scholar. He was instrumental in the formulation of some of the key provisions of the Second Vatican Council’s document on the Church’s mission to the modern world, the name of which is literally translated "Joy and Hope" (Gaudium et Spes"). According to many accounts he helped to draft key provisions of this influential document.

The theological anthropology within this document is woven throughout all the Council Documents. It is later built upon in the writings of the late Pope John Paul II. The heart of the anthropological insight is summarized in Paragraph 22 of this document. Because of its centrality to our examination, it is set forth in almost its entirety:

"22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.

He who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.

As an innocent lamb He merited for us life by the free shedding of His own blood. In Him God reconciled us to Himself and among ourselves; from bondage to the devil and sin He delivered us, so that each one of us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God "loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). By suffering for us He not only provided us with an example for our imitation. He blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on a new meaning.

The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son who is the firstborn of many brothers, received "the first-fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love. Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of "the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23): "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope."

This passage provides the hermeneutical key to understanding the teaching of Pope John Paul II; that includes his "Theology of the Body" as well as his other copious contributions to theology. This paragraph contains an anthropology, Christology and soteriology, each of which is more fully developed throughout his pontificate. The insights are broken open within his encyclical letters, apostolic exhortations, letters and allocutions. Simply summarized, Jesus Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, reveals the Father to man, and reveals man to himself. This is the teaching of the Sacred Scripture, it is expounded upon throughout the tradition, and, as we have seen, it was also the core of Irenaeus’ treatise "Against Heresies". Thus, it is not "new".

This important paragraph is cited in the very beginning of late Pope’s first encyclical letter, "The Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis). It influences most of his extensive writings and allocutions, including his weekly general audiences that were given in St. Peters Square on Wednesday afternoons between September of 1979 and November of 1984. It is these Catecheses which were eventually compiled in what is now popularly referred to as "The Theology of the Body" (what the late Pontiff himself called a "working term.") He formally referred to these catechetical instructions in their totality as "The Redemption of the Body and the Sacramentality of Marriage."

Given the nature, substantive theological and philosophical content, depth and profundity of this work, it will require years of "unpacking" to mine all of its contributions. I will simply consider a few of its themes. First, we will consider its author within the context of his unique life, ministry and contribution.

Karol Wojtyla

As a Bishop in Krakow, Wojtyla was a member of the "Pontifical Study Commission on Family Population and Birth Problems" that had been formed by Pope John XXIII and later expanded by Pope Paul VI. His work on this commission is viewed as having been influential in the formulation of the highly significant encyclical, "Of Human Life", issued by Pope Paul VI in 1973. It was during a period of preparation for a Synod on the family in 1979 that he began the Catecheses that evolved into what is now called his "Theology of the Body". Karol Wojtyla was an enthusiastic supporter of the "principle of totality" that was set forth and elaborated upon in "Of Human Life." His earliest reflections on this encyclical form an integral part of this catechesis. In fact, he summarizes this five year series of teachings called the "Theology of the Body" in a General Audience of November 28, 1984 wherein, while referring to "Of Human Life" he stated:

"… The doctrine contained in this document of the Church’s modern teaching, is organically related to both the sacramentality of marriage and the whole biblical question of the theology of the body, centered on the key words of Christ. In a certain sense we can even say that all the reflections that deal with the redemption of the body and the sacramentality of marriage seem to constitute an ample commentary on the doctrine contained in Humanae Vitae. This commentary seems quite necessary. In fact, in responding to some questions of today in the field of conjugal and family morality, at the same time the encyclical also raised other questions, as we know, of a bio-medical nature. But also (and above all) they are of a theological nature. They belong to that sphere of anthropology and theology that we have called the theology of the body"

Thus, we discover that this relatively brief (15 pages) but cogent and weighty encyclical letter of his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, inspired the late Pontiff to explore its anthological foundations and develop a way of expounding upon them. This exploration led him to formulate the catechesis that became "The Theology of the Body." Is this a effort a "development" of doctrine"? Well, we have already noted that its thought has roots in Patristic sources. Also, as with the Patristic sources, it is firmly grounded within the teaching of the sacred Scripture. However, let me allow the late Pope John Paul’s own words to address this question:

"…The analysis of the biblical aspects speaks of the way to place the doctrine of today’s Church on the foundation of revelation. This is important for the development of theology. Development, that is, progress in theology, takes place through a continual restudying of the deposit of revelation."

Like those who walked before him, this contemporary father of the Church thus begins his exploration of the theology of the body by starting at the beginning, in the Book of the Beginnings, and through reflections on Genesis gives the world an example of "restudying… the deposit of revelation."

The Genesis Accounts

Characteristic of rabbinical pedagogy was reference to the creation accounts in the Book of Genesis as a source of authority. This is one style employed by Jesus. It is recorded in several places within the Gospel, including his response to the challenge of the Pharisees found in the Gospel of St. Matthew, concerning divorce. Additionally, this reference to the first Book of the Hebrew Bible was characteristic of the exegetical writing of the early Christian fathers. However, their exegetical treatments of these passages were sometimes quite different, one from another.

For example, we find Origen of Alexandria (185 – 254 A.D.) espousing a "two creation" view that presents a negative approach to the corporeal or material world, and a devalued view of the human body. Yet, we find Ireneaeus of Lyon, whom we have previously discussed, exegeting the same stories of human origins in the creation accounts (at least in so far as they relate to the relationships between "Image" and "Likeness" and body and soul), quite differently. However, they both use the Genesis creation accounts as a framework for their theological anthropology and teaching concerning the role of the body. So does Pope John Paul II.

Pope John Paul II begins at this Book of the Beginnings. His positive and integrative exegesis of Genesis and his resultant anthropology is much more akin to the positive Ireneaen anthropology. There is no disdain for the body or for human sexuality. Instead we discover a unique and rich teaching concerning the "nuptial meaning of the body" which is constitutively oriented toward the gift of self to the other in love. We also find a unitive and integrative understanding of both creation accounts within a profound exegesis.

In this exegesis of Genesis, John Paul introduces themes such as "original solitude", "original unity" and "original nakedness" while discussing the pre-lapsarian relationship of our first parents, with God, with creation and with one another. He draws fresh living waters from these same creation accounts, which, if appropriated and used in the evangelistic, catechetical, social and missionary task of the Church in this age, could water the cultural landscape which has become parched by the loss of any real understanding of the dignity of the human person, the true noble purpose and beauty of human sexuality and the truth concerning the human vocation. The "Theology of the Body" is a refreshing re-presentation of the Gospel Kerygma. It holds forth the promise that in Christ who is the "New Adam" it is possible for men and women to live fully for, with, and in God, and, in so doing, to discover what it means to be authentically human.

Another one of John Paul’s favorite passages from Gaudium et Spes (par. 24) contains a line that is also cited often in his extensive writings:

"Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself."

According to John Paul II, it is only in this complete gift of self, modeled on the complete "kenosis" or self emptying of Christ (See, Philippians 2), that men and women can come fully alive. Here we find the flavor of Ireneaus again expressed in the words of Pope John Paul. One of the frequently quoted lines taken from the Bishop of Lyons, France is "…the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man’s life is the vision of God". In the "Theology of the Body" we find a clear affirmation that through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God has, in the words of Gaudium et Spes, given the human body a "dignity beyond compare" so that man can truly become "fully alive", in and through the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ.

The Intrusion of Sin

Sin derailed the original plan of God and constitutes a rejection of his invitation to loving communion. In its wake the original integrity of the person, what John Paul labels his or her "original innocence", as well as the intended relationship between man and woman, and man and woman and the created order, was deeply wounded. In addressing the fall in a section of the "Theology of the Body" entitled "A Fundamental Disquiet in All Human Existence", the Pope explains some of its many implications noting that "…the ‘man of lust" took the place of the "man of original innocence", resulting in a "cosmic shame" and thus a "constitutive break within the human person is revealed." Resultantly, "…The body is not subordinated to the spirit as in the state of original innocence. It bears within it a constant center of resistance to the spirit. It threatens, in a way; the unity of the person…almost a rupture of mans original spiritual and somatic unity."

Yet, even with this downward pull, which is occasioned by sin and concupiscence, because of the nuptial meaning of the body, we still know that we can only fulfill our human vocation by giving ourselves away in love to another. Love is, after all, our human and divine vocation. The body does "talk". And, since the body is a vehicle for the communication of ourselves, we should not express through our bodies anything unworthy of the dignity and vocation of the human person and its most high calling in Christ. Through the Incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Christ we are capacitated to live this vocation to love, beginning even now. To live this way is to find the path to authentic human freedom and happiness.

In an allocution early in the series, Pope John Paul connected the nuptial meaning of the body and the state of original innocence prior to the fall (see Gn. 2:25), he explains the nature of this happiness:

"Happiness is being rooted in love. Original happiness speaks to us of the "beginning" of man, who emerged from Love and initiated love. That happened in an irrevocable way, despite the subsequent sin and death. In his time, Christ will be a witness to this irreversible love of the Creator and Father, which had already been expressed in the mystery of creation and in the grace of original innocence. And therefore also the common "beginning" of man and woman, that is, the original truth of their body in masculinity and femininity, to which Genesis 2.25 draws our attention, does not know shame. This "beginning" can also be defined as the original and beatifying immunity from shame as a result of love"

Masculine and Feminine

Rather than being an instrument of use - or a carrying case for the soul- in the Theology of the Body the human body is accorded a place of deep significance. It both expresses and reveals the human person, who is called to speak through the body the language of love. Additionally, because the human person exists as both masculine and feminine, it is a means and sign of the gift of the man to the woman –and the woman to the man. Thus, in marriage, we see in the language of conjugal love what is called the "nuptial meaning" of the human body. This call to an authentic communion of persons is violated whenever either the man or the woman becomes an object to be used rather than a gift to be received, even within the marriage act.

Redemption in and through Jesus Christ is the way to the full experience of the promise contained within this theology of the body. In his catechesis on "adultery in the heart," the pope calls lust "a deception of the human heart in the perennial call of men and women". He speaks of the "ethos of redemption", which helps us to overcome lust and discover our true vocation to love. In an audience of December 3, 1980 John Paul II develops this "ethos of redemption" further, discussing how grace operates to free men and women from concupiscence by capacitating them to the proper exercise of authentic human freedom.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ raised the body to a place within the economy of salvation. Men and women are now freed by grace to live, and to love, differently: "In the ethos of the redemption of the body, the original ethos of creation will have to be taken up again. … This fullness is discovered, first with an interior view of the heart, and then with an adequate way of being and acting"

Conclusion

In this essay we first examined some themes within the writing of Irenaeus in order to show similarities with the teaching of the late Pope John Paul II. In that effort we affirmed that concepts contained within the "Theology of the Body" are consistent with the tradition. Rooted in the Sacred scriptures, this teaching on the Body has developed, like many of the early Patristic writings did, through a dialogue with the culture and in response to those who threaten orthodoxy and orthopraxy in our own day. It is a rich resource that needs to be carefully studied now and applied to the missionary work of the Church in the Third Christian Millennium as she continues the redemptive mission of the Lord.

Given the brevity of the essay, I have only scratched the surface of this fecund and theologically rich work. I conclude with the late Pope’s own words concerning this subject: "The theology of the body is not merely a theory, but rather a specific evangelical, Christian pedagogy of the body. This derives from the character of the Bible and especially of the Gospel. As the message of salvation, it reveals mans true good, for the purpose of modeling-according to the measuring of this good- mans earthly life in the perspective of the hope of the future world"

Our bodies do talk. Through them we are now called, in Jesus Christ, to speak the fullness of the language of selfless love.

_________________

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pope John Paul II, "The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan" (Boston, MA: St. Paul Editions, 1986)
Shivanandan, Mary. Crossing the Threshold of Love: A New Vision of Marriage in the Light of John Paul II’s Anthropology. T & T Clark Ltd, 1999
Downey, Michael, Ed. The New Catholic Dictionary of Spirituality, The Liturgical Press (Collegeville, Minnesota, 1993) pp.93-100.
George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (New York: Harper Collins, 1999)
Adversus Haereses (Ante-Nicene Fathers). Roberts and Donaldson, Hendrickson Publishers Inc., Second Printing, 1995
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The Light of the East (Orientale Lumen): An Apostolic letter of John Paul II (Boston, MA. St. Paul Books and Media, 1995)
"Joy and Hope" (Gaudium et Spes) Flannery, Austin, ed., Vatican Council II, Volume I "THE CONCILIAR AND POST CONCILIAR DOCUMENTS" (New York: Costello Publishing Company, 1998)
Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis): First Encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II, March 4, 1979 (Boston, MA: St. Paul Books and Media)
The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae): On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life. An Encyclical letter of John Paul II. (Boston, Mass: St. Paul Books and Media , 1995
The Splendor of Truth (Veritatis Splendor): An Encyclical letter of John Paul II. (Boston, MA: St Paul Books and media, 1993

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