This interview discusses the Word on Fire Institute’s upcoming live seminar with Dr. Christopher West, “The Human Body: A Gospel in the Flesh,” from December 16–18 at 1 p.m. Central Time. These live seminar offerings include a talk from an expert followed by an interactive question and answer session with our audience. Join the Institute with your free trial membership today to hear Dr. West’s remarkable expertise on this salient topic!
Nell O’Leary: Dr. Christopher West, it’s such an honor that we will soon host you for a three-day live seminar! Thank you for bringing your expertise on the Theology of the Body to our members. The title of your seminar is “The Human Body: A Gospel in the Flesh”—a powerful message about how and why our bodies matter and are sacred. Can you talk a little about your own background related to this topic and what the Theology of the Body is for those who are unfamiliar?
Dr. Christopher West: Theology of the Body (TOB) is the working title John Paul II gave to his first major teaching project as pope—an extended series of Wednesday audience addresses dedicated to the question of human embodiment, and more specifically to our creation and redemption as male and female. When I first encountered it in the early ‘90s, I felt like I had discovered the cure for the world’s cancer, and I knew then that I would spend the rest of my life studying it and sharing it with the world. Many have hailed it as the answer to the crisis of our times, which, we know, is this ever-deepening estrangement from our bodies and from the true splendor and dignity of our creation as male and female.
Ours is the religion of the God who reveals himself in the flesh.
The phrase “theology of the body” often strikes people as odd, even a contradiction in terms. How can the human body, something so earthly, be a study of something so heavenly—a study of God? Well, as St. John Paul II reminds us, if you believe in the incarnation, it shouldn’t seem strange to speak of the body as a study of God, a theology. The fact that it does seem strange—even to many Christians—only shows how far we have drifted from an authentic understanding of our faith. Ours is the religion of the God who reveals himself in the flesh: “A body you have prepared for me” (Heb 10:5). That brief sentence, said Cardinal Ratzinger, “contains the entire Gospel” and “the whole fullness of Sacred Scripture.”
Nell: Oftentimes we hear in today’s culture this dysmorphic separation of body and soul, as if the body is unclean and the soul is tolerating its “vehicle” for experiences. But in this seminar, you emphasize that the body is theological and tells a sacred story. That can be challenging to hear for people who have suffered from violence, abuse, harm, trauma, or the shame of their own choices with their body regarding addiction, loss of identity, or intimacy struggles. How do you see this approach to the body as “a Gospel in flesh” as a response to those concerns?
Dr. West: Yes, so much pain, so much trauma, so much shame and sorrow is related to our bodies and our sexuality. This is our lot in this fallen world. And because of that pain, we experience a very strong temptation to resent our bodies, to blame them for our troubles, and to seek to escape them (as if that were possible) in some form or other of disembodied “angelism.” But this is a trap. It’s diabolic. Precisely here—in that pain and shame and trauma connected with our bodies and sexuality—we are called to rediscover what Christianity is. It is God taking on flesh—coming as a male born of a female—to redeem our experience of the flesh, our experience of masculinity and femininity. The distinctive mark of Christianity is that it offers us the redemption of our bodies, not redemption from our bodies!
“Spirituality” in a general sense is often understood as a flight from the body to reach God. But Christian spirituality represents the exact opposite movement: God taking on a body to reach us! Indeed, if we are trying to divorce ourselves from our bodies to reach God, what sense can we make of a God who has wed himself to the body to reach us? Christ will be of no use to us. Redemption comes not in a flight from our bodily trauma, shame, and sorrow into the realm of “pure spirit.” Redemption comes by carrying the suffering and death of the Lord in our bodies, so that the resurrected life of the Lord might also be manifested in our bodies (see 2 Cor 4:10).
From the very beginning, the greatest enemy of Christianity has been the attempt to separate Christ from the flesh. How can I distinguish a good spirit from a bad spirit? It’s very simple: Everything that affirms Christ in the flesh is of God, St. John tells us, while everything that ruptures Christ from the flesh comes from the antichrist (see 1 John 4:1–3). Everything that detaches the Gospel from the physical becomes an abstraction. And it is not only un-Christian, it is anti-Christian. It is an attempt to destroy Christianity at its very foundations.
From all eternity the Father is generating the Son—not in a sexual way, of course, but in a divine and spiritual way.
So why is the enemy after our bodies? Because, for those with eyes to see, they tell the incredibly glorious story of who God is, and they reveal his eternal plan for the universe. John Paul II shows us that the body, precisely in the mystery of the sexual difference and the call to life-giving union, is a sign, he says, that “transfers into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God.” God is an eternal communion of persons, a family of life-giving love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From all eternity the Father is generating the Son—not in a sexual way, of course, but in a divine and spiritual way. And our ability as male and female to generate sons and daughters is an “echo” in the created order of that divine mystery of eternal generation.
So, in God’s plan for marriage and the family, we catch a glimpse of the God who is an eternal family. And we also catch a glimpse of his eternal plan to marry us. Yes—God wants to marry us! That’s a summary of the whole Bible in five words. The revelation of God’s covenant with humanity is precisely that—the revelation of God’s eternal plan to marry his people, for Christ to marry his Church. What a remarkable notion! As Pope Benedict XVI put it, “The Almighty awaits the ‘yes’ of his creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride.” And God wanted this eternal “marital plan” to be so plain to us, so obvious to us, that he stamped an image of it right in the sexual difference and in the call of male and female to become “one flesh.” As St. Paul tells us, the union of husband and wife in one flesh is a “great mystery”—and it refers to Christ’s union with the Church (see Eph 5:31–32). In light of this, we can see that the whole purpose of human sexuality in the divine plan is to point us to the love and union that awaits us in heaven—what the Bible and the liturgy call “the marriage of the Lamb.”
But is this the way we understand our bodies and sexuality—as a sacred theology, as a revelation of the eternal plan and mystery of God? If not, why not? Because there’s an enemy whose goal is to turn the “great mystery” of our creation as male and female into a “great misery.” And look how successful he’s been! For such a time as this have we been given St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body!
Nell: Thank you for that beautiful explanation! I know we will hear more in our live seminar. Over three days, you’ll present Day 1: A Gift to Be Received, Day 2: A Gift to Be Given, and Day 3: Called to Love: Expressing the Language of the Body “in Truth.” Why does this sequence matter and how does this spiral of conversation build one day upon the next?
Dr. West: At the source and summit of everything we believe as Catholics, we hear these words: “This is my body given for you.” Then we hear: “Do this in memory of me.” We, too, are called to love as Jesus loves—through the sincere gift of our bodies for others. Marriage is one way to do that, but it is not the only way. Those who live a chaste single life in service to others and those who live faithfully the call to celibacy for the kingdom are also living out in their own way what John Paul II calls the “spousal meaning of the body.” It is the call to love as Christ loves: through the sincere gift of self. Indeed, one of the greatest insights of John Paul II’s teaching is that the call to love as Christ loves has been chiseled by God right in the sexual difference.
Think about it: A man’s body makes no sense by itself. Nor does a woman’s body. But seen in light of each other, we see the call to self-giving love. Married couples are called to live that in a very specific way, of course. But everyone, each in his or her own way, is called to live the gift of self.
There’s an important progression here. Before Christ gives us the commandment to love as he loves, he says we must first abide or remain in his love (see John 15:9). We cannot give what we do not have. In order to make a gift of our bodies in love, we must first receive our bodies as a gift of love. Only then can we understand what St. John Paul II means when he says we are called to express the language of our bodies “in truth.” John Paul II says that the body has a “prophetic language” because it is meant to speak the truth about God. He also observes here that it is very important to distinguish between true and false prophets. For if we can speak the truth with our bodies, we can also speak lies. Following the sequence as outlined above will enable us to explore these important concepts in such a way as to unveil a winning and winsome vision of human love in the divine plan.
Nell: People hear “Theology of the Body” and think, “That’s a purity discussion or one that pertains to people in relationships,” but actually, St. John Paul II’s teaching was for men and women in every stage and season of life. In the institute you founded, you have taught thousands of people why this rich Church teaching is applicable to them: single, consecrated, religious, married, divorced, annulled. Can you address how this is and tell us a little more about what your institute offers?
God wants to marry us, as I’ve said, and our bodies tell that story!
Dr. West: Yes, if we think this is only for married people, or confine it to the realm of a “chastity talk,” we haven’t begun to understand the scope of what John Paul II gave us. John Paul II uses the bodily call to spousal love and union as a lens through which to view the whole Christian life and the very meaning of human existence. As the Catechism affirms, “The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church” (1617). The Bible, from beginning to end, tells this story: It begins with the marriage of man and woman, it ends with the marriage of Christ and the Church, and right in the middle is the sacred love poetry of the Song of Songs. God wants to marry us, as I’ve said, and our bodies tell that story! Jesus tells us to go into the main streets and invite everyone to this wedding feast.
Understanding and living our bodies properly—whether one is single, married, or a consecrated celibate—is what orients us all to our ultimate destiny. This is why John Paul II’s teaching, as he himself said, leads not only to a rediscovery of the meaning of human sexuality and married love but through that to “the rediscovery of the meaning of the whole of existence, of the meaning of life.” What we learn in the TOB is obviously “important with regard to marriage,” says John Paul II, but he also insists that “it is equally essential” for the understanding of the human person in general. Hence, what John Paul II has given us here is an in-depth biblical anthropology. That’s why the Theology of the Body is for every body!
However, it’s a dense and scholarly work that needs to be put in accessible language and categories if it’s going to reach the average person in the pew, and that’s the task to which the Theology of the Body Institute is dedicated. Since our founding in 2004, we’ve had thousands of people from around the world participate in both our online and our five-day in-person immersion courses. We also offer a variety of live events, books, and resources, parish programs, and clergy enrichment programs. Of course, we’re active on YouTube, and my wife and I also have a popular Q&A podcast. There is certainly plenty to explore for those interested in learning more. And for those interested in more formal study, we also offer a first-of-its-kind master’s degree in the Theology of the Body and the new evangelization in collaboration with Pontifex University.