What is Theology of the Body?

Pope John Paul II devoted the first major teaching project of his pontificate - 129 short talks between September of 1979 and November of 1984 - to providing a profoundly beautiful vision of human embodiment and erotic love. He gave this project the working title "Theology of the Body."

Christ's mission, according to the spousal analogy of the Scriptures, is to "marry" us. He invites us to live with Him in an eternal life-giving union of love. This is what the union of the sexes is meant to proclaim and foreshadow - the eternal union of Christ and the Church.

As St. Paul says, quoting from Genesis, "'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31-32).

By helping us understand this profound interconnection
between sex and the Christian mystery, John Paul's theology of the body not only paves the way for lasting renewal of marriage and the family, but it enables everyone to rediscover "the meaning of the whole of existence, the meaning of life" (Oct. 29, 80). [Excerpts from Christopher West.]