The Anthropology of the Spirit :Theology of the Body Revisited

Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is practically synonymous with the Church’s teaching on chastity nowadays, but the theological meaning of our bodies is incomplete without an understanding of God’s image written on the human spirit. After all, if not for that image our bodies don’t function much differently than those of other mammals. At least that’s the first problem I noticed when learning about theology of the body as a teenager–and it bothered me that no chastity teachers I heard addressed the problem. Maybe other youths felt the same when they learned about Theology of the Body. One thing that seems to indicate this is the fact that the culture among youths isn’t changing. Birth control and pornography have not exactly decreased in recent decades. Theology of the Body, the Church’s once inspiring approach to the topic of sex, needs revisiting.

Theology of the Body

There’s a reason why talking to kids about sex is awkward. It’s because sex is awkward when framed the way our culture typically frames it, out of context and oriented toward desire. When seen in the context of salvation history, the conjugal act becomes a motif in God’s great love story. Furthermore, the blemishes of its perversions are seen more clearly when given that context.

When it’s talked about as part of God’s plan, I believe the conversation about sex flows naturally. God already gave us the context for the talk. The Immaculate Conception, the virgin birth, and many stories highlighting chastity throughout the Bible, already gave context for human sexuality from a holy starting point. You can’t talk about these dogmas or stories without talking about what sex is. I think we’ve failed to notice that the Bible is full of sexual themes that, if taken out of context, would be considered scandalous. But in context, they are guidelines for teaching sex properly.

The entire message of chastity is contained within salvation history. Tell the story God gave us, the greatest story ever told, and the talk about sex will not be awkward. 

Because of the need for context, I think most of the Theology of the Body lesson approaches are off. Not wrong, just off. They start with the subject of sex and then try to blend salvation history into the subject, rather than just telling the story of salvation and letting lessons on chastity flow naturally from them.

Building Blocks of Civilization

Those who are familiar with John Paul II’s works know that his theology on sex was not limited to his Theology of the Body talks. His very life was infused with the theology of the body. His book Love and Responsibility and his play The Jeweler’s Shop, for example, exemplify how the theology of the body disintegrates when we try to apply it to reality unless we learn to simultaneously implement the anthropology of the spirit. What in the world do I mean by that? I mean the evolution of man has coincided with man’s understanding of the image of God written on his soul. As man became more civilized, so did his understanding of the spirit God gave him. In recent times, however, I believe our understanding of this image of God in us has regressed. The most telling portent is the way we isolate sex, divorcing it from its necessary context.

There’s been a strange shift in behavior in our culture in the past few generations where the desire to procreate has waned greatly. There has been what people call a “sexodus” because many men don’t want to bother with the drama of a sexual relationship, and women are giving up because they quite frankly can’t find any real men willing to make sacrifices for them. Add to that the contraceptive culture all around us, and it’s fair to say the most base human desire is in jeopardy. What used to be a multidimensional desire–for pleasure, intimacy, and children–has become one-dimension: for pleasure. The most enlightened understanding is when all three ends are desired, the least of which is pleasure. 

An even more transcendent understanding of sex would be to see it as a means to deeper holiness. This idea has been all but lost, only to be replaced with a primitive and barbaric approach to sex that masquerades as a progressive lifestyle. Sure, primitive man may have been driven by a desire to procreate and experience intimacy as well, but if these desires were stronger than his desire for pleasure then he would no longer be primitive. He would be civilized–after all, a desire for relationship and appreciation for life may very well be some of the building blocks of civilization.

An Evolution of Human Sexuality

We may condescendingly contemplate how primitive man thought, but there is something profound to note about his mindset. Sex was not always primarily about satisfying the desire for pleasure for him, either. At some point, he must have taken the leap from an instinctive nature to a rational nature. As a Christian, I believe that point was when God said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Once he could think rationally, he likely began to see why sex for pleasure alone was not only primitive but dangerous. As alluded to above, sex provided intimacy in an otherwise isolated and undeveloped world, and the promise of the tribe’s future survival should the couple succeed in providing for their offspring. That determination for survival led to creativity and new inventions, but it also led to caution and discretion. Since they knew their passion for each other was subject to their ability to provide, the primitive human couple most likely learned to withstand their natural impulses for the sake of posterity, and in learning this they took a step toward becoming civilized. With rational thinking came the recognition that they had responsibilities.

Out of love for the things they held dear that were still fragile, like civilization itself, the first rational humans developed mores of chastity that shaped tribal life, and then society. While I cannot say it for certain, I believe it’s safe to assume that promiscuity came first in the lifestyle of primitive man, and chastity developed afterward once he recognized the damage that a promiscuous life causes. So before we dismiss chastity as old-fashioned, we should consider that there was most likely a time when humans considered promiscuity to be the old way, and chastity to be the new way. 

An Age of Heroes

Unfortunately, the imperatives that kept primitive man’s sexual urge at bay are no longer present in our society. As we can now see, sex becomes predominantly about pleasure when there are no apparent and dire needs in one’s lifestyle. This is because, when life is so laced in leisure that there are no serious threats in sight when the pantry is stocked, your enemies are not burning your villages, and doctors have kept most diseases at bay, there is no apparent need for greatness. There is no plea for virtue to prevail when everyone is comfortable because why bother with an inconvenient habit (a virtue) when a convenient one seems to be working out for people just as well? 

When men and women had to fight for their home or what they believed in, or hunt to prepare for winter to avoid starvation, since survival was their number one directive, to put anything else before survival was to risk their lives. This is why they did not have as much luxury to pursue the arts and sciences; their time and effort were consumed by procuring shelter and sustenance, and the means by which they did so have become staples of society, things we take for granted today like fire and animal domestication. In order to procure such basic and dire needs, heroism was required. Today we may pretend to live in such a primitive state and go backpacking into the wilderness, for example, but the imperatives that would inevitably provoke a sacrificial, heroic response in us simply are not there most of the time. 

The Age of Saints

I’m not saying we should return to a primitive state of society, but I do think we would benefit from finding some pursuit that imbues us with an imperative impulse akin to that of a caveman fighting for survival, or a barbarian fighting for his tribe, or a knight fighting for the house to which he has pledged his life. Choose whatever face of valour fits you best, but just choose to be valiant. Choose a cause that will beckon greatness in you. 

For centuries, the saints found such a cause in the gospel. Spreading salvation to the ends of the earth was imperative enough to them for them to risk their lives. And taking that risk animated their very being so much that we still tell their stories today. 

Their stories are part of a much greater story. Just as primitive man fought for survival in an untamed, unforgiving world at the dawn of civilization, the saints fought for souls in an unbaptized world before and during Christian civilization. That battle for souls still rages on today. So we may talk about the harsh conditions our ancestors had to endure in order to sustain their tribe, build villages, and create a civilized society; but our descendants maybe, hopefully, will be, talking about the difficult conditions we, their ancestors, had to endure to make the world Christian. 

The Rest of the Story

Now let us connect the heroism of the saints to chastity and the vision of sex in the kingdom of God. One of the crowning jewels of Christendom was the knight, and one of the foundational qualities of a knight was chastity. Just as early man saw chastity as beneficial to the development of civilization, knights saw how chastity forwards the cause of Christendom. This is no coincidence because civilization and Christendom go hand in hand. One of the goals of Christianity is a more civilized humanity because civilization provides a more conducive environment for the salvation of souls. In addition, all licit expressions of civilization and culture demonstrate some element of holiness–whether it be truth, goodness, beauty, justice, or some other aspect of God. The great Christian story, the Bible, is saturated with motifs and stories encouraging us humans to be more chaste, just, courageous, faithful, and so on. The Bible calls out what is greatest in us. It is no wonder that knights, perhaps the most exemplary class for Christian values besides religious, adamantly upheld the qualities of biblical heroes. In fact, King David and the Maccabees could very easily be considered knights of the biblical age. 

Through all this, I hope you can see how sex is not just an isolated subject; and talk of it is only awkward when we isolate it. We are talking about what it means to be human. Everything we hold dear must be included when we talk about sex if we wish for everything we hold dear to be passed on to the next generation. No talk about sex is complete without the theological meaning of the body explained by Pope John Paul II, and no theology of the body lesson is complete without the full context of salvation history as explained in the Bible and through the Catholic Church.

Pope John Paul II took us back to the beginning to remind us that God created us man and woman. It’s time to take the next step and apply the lesson to the rest of the story.