Pope Saint John Paul II in America
Secular Views of the Human Body Are Often At Odds With What God Intended
Photo by Calvin Craig on Unsplash
In our world today, there are competing views of the human body and of human sexuality. These competing views are not simply differences of opinion for this debate has far reaching, even eternal, ramifications.
The human body and all of its wonders was created by God in His own image and likeness. As the Book of Genesis records: “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness,” (Genesis 1:26). Genesis further states: “God created mankind in His image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” (1:27).
“You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb,” extolls the Psalmist. “I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know” (Psalm 139:13-14).
The Catholic Church has always celebrated the beauty of God’s creation of the human being. The Church rejects Manichaeism and other such heretical views that the human body is somehow evil. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul declares, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
The human body is not evil nor is it sinful but the human body can be and often is used in sinful and evil ways. The human body is often used in ways not intended by God. The human body is often used for pornography, abortion, adultery, homosexuality and other sexual sins. “The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body,” declares Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 6:13).
“In today’s world, sin and evil have twisted the meaning of the body and sexuality almost beyond recognition,” wrote Dr. Christopher West of the Theology of the Body Institute in a 2019 article “Christianity Does Not Reject the Body.” See https://tobinstitute.org/christianity-does-not-reject-the-body/
There is an increasingly prevalent view which regards the human body in terms of sexual gratification of others. In a 31 December 2021 podcast, Dr. Christopher West referred to this view as “the pornographic vision.” See
As I listened to his podcast, I got to thinking about the differing views of the human body and human sexuality that are commonplace in our world today.
The pornographic view of the human body is dangerously disordered. This view views the human body in strictly utilitarian terms. This view is selfish, self-centered, de-humanizing, and destructive. This view sees only the person’s physical attributes. This view treats the human being as an object for another’s sexual gratification. It is destructive to that person’s inherent dignity as a child of God. This view promotes lust, degradation and exploitation. The author of this view is Satan, who hates God and hates His creation, ie. humanity, and wants to destroy humanity.
In stark contrast is the Biblical view of the human body. The Biblical view sees the human body as God intended when He created man and woman (Adam and Eve and their descendants). The Biblical view sees the whole person, not just their physical attributes. The Biblical view sees the person through love, not lust. The Biblical view respects and celebrates the dignity and value of the human person. It sees the human being as someone made in the image and likeness of God the Creator and Christ the Redeemer.
There is another view of the human body that celebrates the human body but does not recognize or acknowledge God’s role in the creation of that human body. While this view does not seek the exploitation of the human body as the pornographic view does, this view nevertheless is an incomplete view. It misses the totality of the purpose and being of the human body as a creation of a loving and most merciful God.
There is another view of the human body that advocates the usage of the human body without any moral and theological restraints. This view also rejects the role of God in society. This view sees the human body in autonomous terms, without any moral constraints on its use or misuse. This view is highly prevalent within the anti-life / pro-abortion movement. Their very oft-repeated mantra or battle cry is “My body. My choice.” They declare that a person may do whatever he/she wants with his/her body whenever and wherever he/she so desires. This view claims that a woman may remove her pre-born baby from her womb no differently than she would remove an unwanted wart, dermatological blemish or bodily growth. The author of this view is also Satan. There are scant few things more diabolical than murdering a pre-born baby in the womb..
Disordered views of the human body and human sexuality have been becoming alarmingly more widespread since the middle of the 20th Century and continue unabated to this day. Fortunately, there are powerful forces working to counter-act this flood-tide of moral depravity and disordered doctrine. From 1979 to 1984, Pope Saint John Paul II gave a series of 129 weekly audiences which came to be known as the Theology of the Body. In these talks, Pope Saint John Paul II explained the human body and human sexuality as God intended. The Theology of the Body Institute seeks to promote the Pope’s teachings. See https://tobinstitute.org/
“The human body is not merely an organism of sexual reactions,” said Pope Saint John Paul II at his 22 August 1984 Weekly Audience. “But it is, at the same time, the means of expressing the entire man, the person, which reveals itself by means of the language of the body. This language has an important interpersonal meaning, especially in reciprocal relationships between man and woman. Moreover, our previous analyses show that in this case the language of the body should express, at a determinate level, the truth of the sacrament. Participating in the eternal plan of love ("sacrament hidden in God"), the language of the body becomes a kind of prophetism of the body.” See https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/churchs-position-on-transmission-of-life-8457
Pope Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is as relevant today as it was when he first delivered these teachings back in the 1980s.
Too much in our culture is destroying human dignity for profit and self-gratification. Through prayer and education, we can counter-act this destructive force and elevate humanity to the position that God intended when He created us.
About the Author
Bryan J. Dickerson is an author and historian specializing in military and naval history, and Catholicism. He earned his BA in History from Rowan University (NJ), MA in American History from Monmouth University (NJ) and a graduate Certificate in Archival Studies from Louisiana State University. His writings have appeared online and in print in such publications as Columbia (the magazine of the Knights of Columbus) and Celebrate Life (the magazine of the American Life League). He is a 4th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a Past Grand Knight of a council in New Jersey. His book The Liberators of Pilsen: the U.S. 16th Armored Division in World War II Czechoslovakia was published by McFarland Books in 2018 and his book Dive Bomber Down: James A. Nist Naval Aviator in the Pacific War is now available from McFarland Books. He has also self-published sixeen books, including In the Name of COVID: The Assault on Religious Freedom in 2020. A former U.S. Navy Reserve Religious Program Specialist 1st Class (Fleet Marine Force), he mobilized and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom twice. He and his wife Lisa have four children and live in southern New Jersey.
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