After four months away from this topic, I need to resume posting about it. Just to remind my long-term readers and to explain to the newer ones, what I do in the posts under the title "Theology of the Body" is to present extracts from a book titled Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Simple Language. The book has distilled 129 talks that he gave at his weekly audiences on the subject of sexuality — which run to 533 pages of sometimes heavy theology — into 185 pages that you don't need to be a theologian to understand. I certainly recommend the book itself, published in 2008 by Philokalia press. But I also think that what is contained in it is so relevant to the topic of sex, with clear implications for homosexual activity, that I need to offer the main points in it to everyone who reads my blog. I hope it will help you at least to understand and respect the Catholic Church's position on the topic; and of course I hope you will find it worth taking seriously and ultimately persuasive.
You can review the previous posts in this series by clicking on the topic "Theology of the Body" near the end of the sidebar. Recent posts have dealt with the topics of adultery and lust.
"The study of ethics is not just an intellectual exercise. Above all, morality must be lived. …
"At times, the effort to live out Christ's teaching has gone awry. … Consider Manichaeism …
"For the Manichaeans, all aspects of bodily life were degrading, but especially sexuality and procreation. …
"In Christ's teaching about adultery in the heart, the Manichaeans saw a condemnation of the body. The body itself, they believed, was the cause of sin. …
"But, contrary to the Manichaeans, Jesus locates sin in the heart — not the body. …
"Far from condemning the body, Christ calls the total person to purity. True Christian morality doesn't flee bodily existence — it embraces and sanctifies it."
An der Grabstätte von Kronprinzessin Cecilie
1 week ago
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