Reading: Lesson 9 - Theology of the Body

Theology of the body

What is the connection between the body and the person? 

What is the ‘spousal meaning of the body’? 

What does marriage symbolize? 

In the beginning:
Solitude 

What does Adam’s solitude reveal? 

Love and responsibility

In the beginning:
Communion of persons

Body + soul = living person

Holistic anthropology = holistic view of sexual union 

“One flesh” sexual union = union of two persons

Body and person cannot be separated 

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

In the beginning:
Nakedness

Seeing 

“What must we do to earn the freedom of being unguardedly and innocently naked to someone? Our own and other cultures suggest that we must do a lot. We must make promises and keep them. We assume many fearful responsibilities and do much work. We must build the household of trust” (Wendell Berry, Art of the Commonplace, 178). 

Proper sexual desire vs. lust

Bless vs. grasp/possess 

Love & life