Expert: Fr. Michael - 4/21/2009

Question
Dear Father ~~
Please forgive me if you have already addressed this issue / question. I have an intense aversion to the Theology of the Body; from the very little I have read of the "TOB"--I have felt this aversion and haven't the desire to learn more about it. I am unable to defend my feelings and have not taken the time to research this issue ( if it is even an issue )

It seems that it has become extremely popular and especially so with the adult single Catholics I know. I feel like a "stick-in-the-mud" because of my opinion.
Is there substantiation somewhere that might support my feelings or am I just a "stick-in the-mud" ?

Thank you for your consideration, Father !

God bless you !

Marianne

Answer
       A fabrication of New Order Modernism, the "Theology of the Body," was developed by John Paul II in 129 Wednesday talks given between September 5, 1979, and November 28, 1984.  It is clear from the very first talk that JPII's approach to theology diverges from the approved theology of the Catholic Church, that is, Thomism, founded upon the theology of the Church's Principal Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas and indirectly upon the theology of St. Augustine of Hippo, the Great Father of the Church.  Rather than being rooted in the realism and objectivity of Catholic Thomism, the Theology of the Body is rooted instead in the false subjective philosophies of Modernism.  The Church's theology is objective, deductive, and rational.  The Theology of the Body constructs a counter-theology that is subjective, inductive, and experiential.

       An objective view of reality refers to something that is true, regardless of whether or not I know it to be true.  For example, if a blind man is outside, but cannot see the trees, the trees still exist, irrespective of whether the blind man perceives them or not.  Objective reality exists independent of one's individual perception.  The subjective view of reality claims that only what I perceive to be real is actually real.  For example, if I believe that a certain poison will cure my disease, then that poison is healthful in my perception, whether the poison objectively will kill me or not.  A dangerous philosophy!

       One can see how Theology of the Body can lead to serious consequences in the area of morality.  The subjectivist view of reality is clearly captured by the phrase, "That may be true for you, but not for me!"  In other words, what is true depends on what I believe or accept or perceive.  In Catholic theology, such a claim is utter nonsense.  For example, in Theology of the Body, if your perception is that Allah is God, then he is -- for you.  If your perception is that it is moral to divorce and remarry, then it is moral -- for you.  You can see how this subjective thinking has led to Vatican II's infamous "oecumenism" ("we all worship the same god"; all gods are equal) and moral relativism.

       Catholic theology is deductive and rational; that is, it uses objective reason to determine what is true and false.  Modernist subjectivism determines truth by induction, that is, experimentation and observation, to determine what people believe by their own perception and experience.  Subjectivism thus leads, in effect, to doctrine by poll, which the Protestants already have.  For example, it makes no difference what Christ objectively said in Scripture against divorce.  Since the perception of (some) people is that divorce and remarriage is moral, then it is moral -- for them.  And no one can tell them that it is wrong -- for them.

       The Theology of the Body is the result of the use of a philosophical movement called "Phenomenology," an offshoot of Modernism, in which Karol Woytyla, later JPII, was instructed in Poland.  The founder of Phenomenology was a German philosopher named Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), who, in the Protestant fashion, focused on the subjective, individual experience of people.  Phenomenology, in turn, was based on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who had taught that moral norms are unknowable because they lie
beyond immediate human experience.  Thus, morality is not objectively knowable, as it is in Catholic theology, and morality is divorced from reality.  Therefore, one cannot say objectively that anything (murder, stealing, perjury) is immoral.  Only the conventions of society (i.e., civil law) bind, and they can be changed at any time.

       In the 19th century, the Church first took note of the heresy of Modernism and defined it on September 26, 1835, when the document condemned the approach of certain priests, professors in German universities, who were using the Modern Philosophy of Descartes, Kant, and Hegel to reinterpret the Articles of Faith.  At the heart of the Modernist ethos is the belief that truth can contradict itself.  As God is the author all truth, Modernists
believe that God can contradict Himself, that He has not revealed anything that can be defined definitively, that it is up to believers to "reinterpret" the meaning of "truth" time and events unfold.

       In 1864 Pope Pius IX condemned Modernism in his encyclical Quanta Cura (1864), accompanied by the famous Syllabus of Errors as an appendix.  The Holy Office under Pope St. Pius X published the famous decree Lamentabili sane (1907), in which 65 condemned propositions drawn from the works of Modernist writers were listed, and he himself issued the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), in which he outlined the errors of Modernism, described as "summa omnium heresum" [the synthesis of all heresies].

       The Modernist acceptance of the Hegelian view of the world (that ideas contain within themselves the seeds of their own inherent contradiction, thus creating a conflict that is resolved in the evolution of a new idea, a synthesis, from the first idea and its antithesis) is the foundation of the work of men such as the late Frs. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, and their protege, Father Joseph Ratzinger.

       To the contrary, Catholic theology (Thomism) begins with God.  The Renaissance started to veer off the centrality of God by focusing on human beings.  Protestantism furthered the emphasis on individual human beings and especially on the individual with its insistence on the private interpretation of Scripture.  The same tendency can be seen in the modern development of "Scientism," that is, the veneration of science as a kind of secular "god" rather than as simply a tool of man's mind to understand the universe.  Many people today are loathe to accept conclusions based upon principles.  Rather, they give more credibility to an individual's personal "experience" and the conclusions he draws from that experience.  For example, if his experience is that Mohammedans are good people, then it is morally acceptable to believe that Allah is god.  The Theology of the Body results in a concept of the world which is subjective, irrational, and experiential.

       And that is exactly the moral timebomb that Newchurch is preaching, which is, and will continue to, destroy every traditional teaching on Catholic morality.  It just goes to show that the Newchurch of the New Order is unCatholic.  Both JPII and Benedict-Ratzinger promote this nonsense.  The leading proponent of the Theology of the Body worldwide is Christopher West, a rock musician and disciple of the Newchurch archbishop of Denver, Colorado,
the Modernist Charles Chaput.