G.K. Chesterton in John Paul II's Theology of the Body

While many people do not compare G.K. Chesterton and St. John Paul II, they actually both emphasize one critical point, that humans are extremely unique in the natural world.  In Theology of the Body, John Paul II uses several terms to capture his key ideas.  These include original solitude, original unity, original nakedness, shame, and the spousal meaning of the body. 

Original solitude, unity, and nakedness are three key experiences of the human person.  They are original both in the temporal order (mankind experienced them first) but also as the basis of our other experiences.   While sin has distorted these foundational human experiences, they can still be detected by attentive persons.

Original unity refers to man’s and woman’s shared and equal humanity.  Adam’s initial response to Eve shows he recognizes her as one like himself, rational and different from the other animals.  Man and woman are thus united in being human and made in the image of God. 

Original nakedness refers to the fact that, prior to sin, the human person had totally control over their body and total respect for the bodies of others.  Mankind had no fear of being used by the other or using the other and thus had no need of clothes. 

Shame is the post-sin version of original nakedness.  It is fallen man’s awareness that they lost the original dignity of being fully in control of their own bodies.  This includes both being aware of being used by others and being aware of our use of others.  Wearing clothes is an attempt to recover the beauty of original nakedness by protecting ourselves from being used by others (i.e., reduced to a mere object of sexual pleasure) and to protect others from viewing our involuntary reactions to the bodies of others.  Wearing clothes is thus the proper reaction to shame. 

The spousal or nuptial meaning of the body refers to how sexual difference and complementarity reveals to mankind that we are made for relationship with others.  Since we were made in the Image of God, as male and female both in the Imago Dei, John Paul then explains that the body, in its sexual difference, is a primordial sacrament of God in that it can help reveal to us that God is a communion of Persons – Triune. 

Original solitude is the theme I want to focus on.  It refers to the recognition that, among corporeal creatures, humans are alone in being rational – the human person is very much unlike the other animals.  Adam recognizes this when he does not find a suitable companion among the animals.  He examines them all but finds not one of them to be a worthy companion for himself.

This is a theme which G.K. Chesterton strongly emphasized.  In his key book, The Everlasting Man, Chesterton argues two basic points.  First, that man is radically different from all the other animals, and thus man is not a mere animal.  Second, that Christ is radically different from all other men, and thus Christ is not a mere man.  He summarizes his first point which he argued in the first half of the book, “in the first section I often treated man as merely an animal, to show that the effect was more impossible than if he were treated as an angel” (Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, II.2).

While John Paul used this observation, which is also revealed to us in Genesis 2 as John Paul points out, to show that man and women need the companionship of each other since other animals are too far beneath us, Chesterton uses this point to prove that man is, in a sense, a supernatural being.  Man is supernatural compared to the rest of the natural world.  We have spiritual and immortal souls and the capacity to reason and love, we are made in God’s image.  Thus, only another human person can be a fitting companion to us.  We have too little in common with the animals for their fellowship to remotely satisfy us. 

John Paul II and Chesterton both emphasize this point (the radical difference between mankind and animals) to counteract the growing secularization which tries to diminish this difference between us.  In the current age, animal-rights activists have tried to argue that animals have personhood due to the complex brains they have.  Some legal systems have even granted legal personhood to features of the environment such as a certain river or ecosystem.  These are absurd ideas which purposefully overlook what Chesterton points out is obvious and John Paul says is revealed in Scripture, that mankind is very different from the rest of the physical creation and we cannot treat human beings like other parts of nature.