Theology of the Body and the Transformation of Culture

[Editor’s Note: I just found this lovely piece co-written by my friend, the late Stratford Caldecott. It’s an articulate reminder of what this blog is all about.]

It is often assumed that the theology of the body is all about sex. But it is not so simple.

Sexual relations are only a part of something much bigger and deeper. Before we can follow what the Pope is saying about the gospel of the body, we need to understand his method.

It is based on a reading of reality as symbolic, as meaningful, which when applied to ourselves he calls the “language of the body.” The whole world is a book of symbols expressing invisible realities. The language of the sacred Scriptures depends on images and metaphors drawn from this book of nature, and they teach us how to penetrate the language of nature to reach a deeper level of meaning.

Finally, by expressing the fullness of divinity in human nature, Jesus Christ enables us to read the two other books at an even deeper level, seeing in them the “mystery hidden from eternity in God,” which is the mystery of God’s own interior life, into which we ourselves are invited through his death and resurrection and as the body of the Church.

Read the rest over at the National Catholic Register.

And here is a piece by a fellow Patheosa about dear Strat.