The Theology of the Body

...considered by a Lutheran and an Orthodox theologian, David Hart, who wrote something controversial a while back in the WSJ - what was it? Ah yes, on theodicy and the tsunami.

Well, here's one of many good passages:

John Paul’s anthropology is what a certain sort of Orthodox theologian might call a “theandric” humanism. “Life in the Spirit,” the most impressive of the texts collected in the Theology of the Body, is to a large extent an attempt to descry the true form of man by looking to the end towards which he is called, so that the glory of his eschatological horizon, so to speak, might cast its radiance back upon the life he lives in via here below. Thus, for John Paul, the earthly body in all its frailty and indigence and limitation is always already on the way to the glorious body of resurrection of which Paul speaks; the mortal body is already the seed of the divinized and immortal body of the Kingdom; the weakness of the flesh is already, potentially, the strength of “the body full of power”; the earthly Adam is already joined to the glory of the last Adam, the risen and living Christ. For the late pope, divine humanity is not something that in a simple sense lies beyond the human; it does not reside in some future, post-human race to which the good of the present must be offered up; it is instead a glory hidden in the depths of every person, even the least of us—even “defectives” and “morons” and “genetic inferiors,” if you will—waiting to be revealed, a beauty and dignity and power of such magnificence and splendor that, could we see it now, it would move us either to worship or to terror.

Obviously none of this would interest or impress the doctrinaire materialist. The vision of the human that John Paul articulates and the vision of the “transhuman” to which the still nascent technology of genetic manipulation has given rise are divided not by a difference in practical or ethical philosophy, but by an irreconcilable hostility between two religions, two metaphysics, two worlds—at the last, two gods.

Comments

[Maureen]

I just read Jenson's essay. It seems pretty good all the way through, except for a moment at the end of "nanny-nanny boo-boo, this means the Pill is okay".

(Riiiiiight. Uh huh. Sure. Please go to the line marked "How the Pill really works" and wait there to be instructed.)

Hart's essay also has some interesting things in it in re: the theology. Toward the bioethics...um. I admit enjoying any slam at transhumanism, but to be honest, most transhumanists don't want participation by everybody. Those who are "left behind" by refusing to modify themselves genetically and technically will inevitably become obsolete and die out. Alternately, those who refuse to upload themselves into computers will become unimportant microbes to the silicon network human race. (Amusingly, both scenarios have been turned into stories by the brilliant but way misguided writer Daniel Keyes Moran.) Either way, transhumans will go through the "singularity" and go away, becoming incomprehensible to mere mortals.

It is with good reason that the singularity has been called "The Rapture of the Nerds".

(Actually, what's disturbing to me is the "peer pressure" coercion manifested in so many of these scenarios, and particularly by folks like Moran whom I would have thought knew better. I mean, there's a difference between acknowledging there'd be pressure to keep up with the Jones' baby, and telling people they're evil if they don't.)

(Bizarrely enough, the science fiction antidote to transhumanism has been around for many years -- the Instrumentality of Mankind series, written over the course of the early twentieth century by one of its most brilliant and idiosyncratic writers, Cordwainer Smith (aka psychological warfare officer/diplomat Paul Linebarger). His series chronicles a humanity which uses technology to divide into many different kinds of humans which spread out among the stars, and which must be brought back to a knowledge of their unity and true humanity by the long influence and work of saints and martyrs (the dogwoman D'Joan and many of the other underpeople, including the catwoman C'Mell) and a weird cast of characters. The fact that a lot of transhumanists like this series yet can hold the views they do is a mystery to me.)

But Hart's essay ends extremely well, with a real vision of the glory God has granted humans already, in the light of what waits for us in eternity, and that Christians must always keep that dignity of every human as one of our banners and causes to fight.

[middleoftheroadnot]

Sounds like the "Spark of God" philosophy (so I live in a Quaker/Mennonite area). If every human life contains a spark of the divine, then all human life becomes equally precious and we should treat each human being as we would Jesus-God made man-no matter if they are pope or criminal. Because God makes all souls for their own purpose to return to Him, in the time He not we allot. Hence why abortion and the death penalty are equally repugnant. It is not about innocence or guilt, but the divine nature of human life.

[Lynn Gazis-Sax]

That excerpt does make Theology of the Body sound really cool.

What are some good, accessible, short writings on Theology of the Body? Whenever I tried to look at it, I wound up with things to read that I just zoned out on.

The Cordwainer Smith series is really cool.

[Cat]

What are some good, accessible, short writings on Theology of the Body?

The Mystery of “Fair Love” by John F. Crosby
Love & Responsibility summary booklet (PDF)
Collected articles by Christopher West (see also books & audio presentations)
(Free Christopher West audio files here)
JP2's Theology of the Body in Simple Language series by Sam Torode

Some of these will be more "accessible" than others, depending on the reader.

[Fr. Tom Dowd]

To Lynn,

If I may humbly suggest, I preached a homily on the Theology of the Body a year ago, and it is available here. I also recently posted a response to a student's question (I teach theology at Concordia University in Montreal) regarding sexual intersubjectivity. Hope these help!

[michigancatholic]

This is really very Franciscan--I'm serious. St. Francis wasn't really about birthbaths... ;)

[Maureen]

After the Celtic Festival, I went to see March of the Penguins to cool down.

You know, it was really very Theology of the Body. It showed how even silly penguins lead lives of dignity and patient endurance, and showed penguin fathers and mothers risking death to care for their children. I suspect this is why people are flocking to the movie.

Honestly, if flightless birds without immortal souls can do stuff like that, we have very little excuse. And if they follow a plan with such grandeur, what does God have planned for us?

[Touchy Tech]

With each cool summer dawn,
The fresh glory of the sun,
Conjures deep longings.

[Ed]

To Lynn

There is also a good series by Fr Richard Hogan at http://www.nfpoutreach.org/Hogan_Theology_%20Body1.htm