Confused by Theology of the Body
The Catholic Theological Society of America is meeting again. They seem to be trying to figure out what John Paul’s Theology of the Body means. It is interesting because at the outset they assume it cannot means what it actually says. That is that as men and women our bodies are created in harmony with a much deeper reality about ourselves. That things like contraception, gay marriage, and female ordination don’t just contradict who we are physically but spiritually as well. The CTSA is a collection of liberal theologicans and they know more surely than they know anything that that can’t be right. But it is becoming impossible to ignore. Young Catholics and most bishops are embracing it more and more all the time. So what is a guy like David McCarthy going to make of that? Well, John Allen tells us:
In a sound-bite, McCarthy said that today’s young Catholic is looking to “invite back in our own version of Archie Bunker” – the cantankerous authority figure so thoroughly lampooned and dethroned in American culture in the 1970s and afterwards.
That instinct, which McCarthy defined as an “awkward, inarticulate, but overwhelming desire for home,” helps explain the attraction of many young Catholics to John Paul II’s theology of the body, McCarthy said. In reality, he said, many of these young Catholics have never actually read John Paul’s writings on the subject, but they’ve picked up two points from it:
• Sexual intimacy is wonderful
• Sexuality “gives us rules and duties,” meaning that it’s “the context of a vocation.”
He is right that many young Catholics have not read much of John Paul’s actual writings. They typically read guys like Christopher West, Steve Kellmeyer, Dawn Eden, Fr Roger Landry, Jason Evert, Mary Beth Bonacci, Janet Smith, etc. But that is just because people like that have made the theology more accessible. But to imply that everything they have learned can be summed up in 18 words is beyond silly. Liberal theologians seem to only understand eachother. They don’t seem to understand God and they don’t seem to understand why people want God.
The reference the Archie Bunker is quite revealing. It reveals much about McCarthy’s idea of what authority is all about. Society is where you find holiness and Rome is where you find bigotry and an irrational clinging to outdated ideas. He can’t understand why anyone would see John Paul and Benedict as holy men and see gay marriage, abortion and pornography as something to rebel against. He can’t seem to get his mind around that. So he assumes it is because they are just stupid.
It is interesting to me how you can have two vastly different traditions both calling themselves Catholic. The same principle for determining truth applies. Follow the pope and the bishops. It does not matter if the other contenders are protestant or Catholic. It does not matter how big their church is or how many letters they have behind their name. Where is the successor of Peter? Where are the successors of the apostles? That is how to find truth.
