A synthesis of Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”

Abstract

This article is an introduction to John Paul II’s catechesis on human love, also known as the Theology of the Body. In this essay, the authors highlight and explain twenty essential themes from the original text and relate some of these themes in the Philippine context. These themes revolve around the principle that the body is gift, and as such, is capable of revealing the divine image, in which every human being is made. This positive view of the body becomes possible by recapturing man’s original experience in Genesis which, according to John Paul II, has three dimensions: original solitude, original unity and original nakedness. The article summarily explains what he means by these three concepts, and then re-echoes the Holy Father’s claim that the body’s capacity to make visible the divine reality is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the Incarnate Word of God. This is why the understanding of marriage found in the original text reminds us that the vocation of married love is to imitate Christ’s self-giving love for the Church. This reminder helps elevate the common secular understanding, and in this way, helps recapture the deeper beauty found in being created male and female.