Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri

Abstract

Reviewed by: Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri Angela Franks Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri, O.P. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2016), xiii + 338 pp. The oft-quoted "time bomb" prediction of George Weigel appears to have come true, at least in the United States: John Paul II's theology of the body has exploded into prominence, from the obscure topic of impenetrable audience talks to the foundation for sex-ed curricula. Along with this higher profile has come criticism, in particular of its perceived over-sexualization of anthropology. More measured voices have been in play, but a critical mass of careful scholarship had not arisen to nuance the popular paradigm very substantially. In the last five years or so, the scholarly treatment of the theology of the body has finally caught up with its popularization. The volume under review by Thomas Petri, O.P., is just one of several published by Catholic University of America (CUA) Press alone, which is situating itself as the foremost Anglophone publisher of monographs on John Paul II. CUA Press books tend toward contextualizing the thought of the Pope within its scholastic matrix. Along these lines, Petri states his thesis forthrightly: "An authentic understanding of this 'theology of the body' relies on an appreciation of the intersection of the thought of John Paul II and Thomas [End Page 603] Aquinas" (1). In an insightful and original move, Petri finds this intersection particularly in the Pope's idea of the "spousal meaning of the body," the realization that our bodies testify that man is made for self-gift. Before turning to his elaboration of this point, it is necessary to see more clearly why this intersection is not obvious. The first reason is John Paul II's prose, which lacks the limpid clarity of Thomas Aquinas and is heavily salted with neologisms of a phenomenological flavor. Garrigou-Lagrange, he was not, even if he was the former's student. More significantly, the English translation of Wojtyła's philosophical magnum opus, Osoba i Czyn (translated as The Acting Person), deliberately obscured his dialogue with the metaphysical tradition by phenomenologizing his language even further. The most egregious example is the word suppositum, left in the Latin in the Polish original. The English translation indefensibly translates the subtitle "Man as 'Suppositum'" as "The Person as a Basic Ontological Structure." This rendering leaves the reader confused. What exactly is a "basic ontological structure"? Why "basic"? How "ontological"? All this is a wholly unnecessary distraction, given that Wojtyła was in fact developing a metaphysical tradition, not recreating one from scratch. Given this avoidable complication, Petri's book is most welcome, and he is correct to argue that an understanding of Thomas is necessary for grasping Wojtyła. Petri's secondary, unspoken goal seems to be to evangelize the untutored reader in Thomas's thought itself. He does this in a serene and comprehensive style that echoes his master. Along the way, the reader encounters ideas that are not, strictly speaking, necessary for the argument, such as a few pages here on the virtue of hope or there on the agent intellect. Without these digressions, the book might be a hundred pages shorter but also poorer, for the way in which Petri inserts the reader into the beauty of Thomas's comprehensive world-view is one of the many delightful experiences of this lovely book. The introduction and the first two chapters provide a detailed theological context for Wojtyła's thinking on sexual ethics. Chapter 1 contrasts Wojtyła's methodology with that of the neo-Scholastic manualist tradition by ably summarizing the historical scholarship exemplified by Servais Pinckaers, O,P. If the reader finds this approach persuasive, then this chapter will illuminate. But for any reader already unconvinced by Pinckaers's genealogy, the book does not provide any new evidence. Chapter 2 lays out the twentieth-century debates on contraception within Catholic theology, focusing on the question of the end(s) of sex and marriage: procreation...