Books

Theology of the Body for Beginners, by Christopher West

Reviewed by Jacinta Cummins

Contents - Jul 2006 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Strong Church leadership: new approach - Michael Gilchrist Salesian Missions: Church protects the victims of Timor violence - Br Michael Lynch News: The Church Around the World Evangelisation: Strong leadership: US bishop Robert Finn shows how - AD2000 Report New Vatican document emphasises centrality of marriage and family - AD2000 Report US Archbishop: how to reform the Liturgy Internet pornography: raising the alarm - Fr Stephen J. Rossetti AD2000 website Re-mythologising: Narnia - faith and fiction: The parallel world of C.S.Lewis - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Vatican concern at Islamic persecution of Christians - Zenit News Agency Letters: The Da Vinci Code - Denis Dominguez Letters: Pope Pius XII - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Anti-Catholicism - Paula Gartland Letters: Abortion and the Annunciation - Greg Dunne Letters: Contraception - Richard Congram Letters: Degrees of Homosexuality - Vincent Bemowski Letters: Hymn books wanted - A. van Tilburg Books: Hell and Other Destinations, by Piers Paul Read - Francis Phillips (reviewer) Books: Theology of the Body for Beginners, by Christopher West - Jacinta Cummins (reviewer) Books: Good News About Sex and Marriage, by Christopher West - Jacinta Cummins (reviewer) Books: Stimulating reading from Freedom Publishing Reflection: US bishop: making saints should be the goal of Catholic schools - Bishop Robert Finn

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY FOR BEGINNERS
by Christopher West
(Ascension Press, 2004, 144pp, $25.00. Available from Freedom Publishing)

Reviewed by Jacinta Cummins

Four decades after the "sexual liberation" of the 1960s, rather than having the sexual Utopia the baby boomers were promised, their children and grandchildren have inherited a world in which sexual deviation and assorted perversions are normalised and accepted.

God always bestows special and unique graces in times of great chaos and it seems no mere coincidence that John Paul II was installed after the advent of the "sexual liberation" and the widescale acceptance of the Pill. John Paul saw a need for the Church's teachings on sexuality to be made accessible and explained to the millions of young people caught between the Church's teachings on sexuality and the world's view of it.

John Paul's offering of "a rich, biblical reflection on the meaning of human embodiment, particularly as it concerns sexuality and erotic desire" may prove daunting to the ordinary Catholic single. This is where Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West plays such an integral part in the "re-education" of the many young people conditioned to accept "you're going to do it anyway" so "use protection".