Religion IV

1. THEOLOGY OF
THE BODY

2. What in the world?
◦ Theos = God, Logos = study
◦ Theology of the Body = ?
◦ 129 Wednesday audiences by Pope John Paul II, 1979-1984
◦ Two fundamental questions!
◦ For what areas of life could this have implications?

3. Love? Or lust?
◦What movies, famous news stories, or books have
examples of love? Be specific.
◦What movies, etc. claim to be telling a love story but
are only showing lust?
◦What is love? Write a definition.
◦What is lust? Write a definition.

4. Love? Or lust?
◦ "Our sexuality is a gift through which we can choose to be generous
or selfish."
◦ Love is being generous – love is an action – seeking the good of the
other and giving that to them
◦ Lust is selfish – the lusting person is seeking his own satisfaction
only. Lust is separate from the love of God… How?
◦ A disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.
◦ Our sexuality is a good thing. Our desire to be united with another
person intimately is a good thing! But because of sin, this desire or
how we live it out gets twisted into something it wasn't meant to be
and isn’t good for us.

5. For God so loved the world…
◦2 Creation stories…
◦Genesis 1:25 – characteristics of the creation of
man

6. In the image and likeness of God
◦CCC 221
◦The family – the Union of a man and woman in love
and the ability to create new life – is a concrete
participation in the love of God.
◦It is living in the image and likeness of God.
◦God is Trinity – God is communion

7. From TOB
◦"The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making
visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It
was created to transfer into the visible reality of the
world the mystery [of God]… and thus to be a sign of
it."

8. The sacramentality of the body
◦What is a sacrament?
◦What does the phrase "sacramentality of the
body" mean?

9. The sacramentality of the body
◦The call to love – to life-giving union and communion
with another – is stamped on our bodies.
◦In our bodies we have a way of giving to another and
of receiving life-giving love… We are made in the
image and likeness of God!

10. The sacramentality of the body
◦Our bodies are signs of God's existence, His love for us, and
our call to love others.
◦ "Now I see dimly, as in a mirror, but then face to face."
◦Our experiences of love here on earth point to the even greater
love that God has for us and that we will one day experience in
its fullness in heaven.
◦Our experiences of Union and communion here on earth
foreshadow the amazing Union and communion that we will
have with God in heaven.

11. Homework
◦Read pages 38-42.
◦Pg 42 – answer questions #1-5

12. The Second Creation Account
◦Genesis 2
◦Characteristics of man and woman’s relationship?

13. The Original Experiences
◦Original Solitude
◦Original Nakedness
◦Vs. shamelessness
◦Original Unity
◦Nuptial Meaning of the Body
◦Original Happiness
Define each term.
Do we experience
any of these today?
Or an echo of them?
If so, how. If not, why
not?

14. From Pope John Paul II
◦“Only true love… is capable of absorbing shame….
True love is a love in which sexual values are
subordinate to the value of the person.”
◦Explain the meaning of this quote.

15. ◦In the Garden, in the beginning, Adam and Eve’s love
mirrored God’s love. In other words, it was:
FREE
TOTAL
FAITHFUL
FRUITFUL

16. Genesis 3 – The Fall
◦The beginning of “historical man”
◦Who is historical man?

17. God (the Father) is dead – says Original
Sin
◦ “Original sin is not only the violation of a positive
command … but … attempts … to abolish fatherhood,
destroying its rays which permeate the created world,
placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and
leaving man with only a sense of the master-slave
relationship.” - Pope John Paul II

18. Got shame?
◦“Pope John Paul II tells us that only true love is
capable of absorbing shame. This means that shame
is ‘swallowed up by love, dissolved in it, so that the
man and woman are no longer ashamed’ of sharing
themselves and their sexuality with each other.”