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The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Why is it not good for man to be alone? John Paul II said it was because Adam needed an other in order to realize the relation of mutual self-gift that is the fullness of humanity’s imaging of the Triune life. In the process he suggests a kind of theistic proof from sexual difference.
The reality of mutual reciprocity is evident in the body, and in the specific forms of the bodies of male and female: “Exactly through the depth of [Adam's] original solitude, man now emerges in the dimension of reciprocal gift, the expression of which – by that very fact the expression of his existence as a person – is the human body in all the original truth of its masculinity and femininity. The body, which expresses femininity ‘for’ masculinity and, vice versa, masculinity ‘for’ femininity, manifests the reciprocity and the communion of persons. It expresses it through gift as the fundamental characteristic of personal existence.”
The similarity and difference between male and female bodies, their created suitability and “fit,” points to the fact that male and female are created to give themselves to one another. And this is a theistic proof of sorts:
Being a body, which necessarily means being a male or female body, thus witnesses “to creation as a fundamental gift.” Because it witnesses to creation as gift, it also witnesses to “Love as the source from which this same giving springs.”
This is superior to many other theistic proofs because it arrives at specifically Christian description of God. The proof from motion gets us to an “unmoved mover,” and the proof from cause to an uncaused cause. John Paul’s “proof” moves from the bodily structure of man as male and female to creation as a whole as gift to the reality of a Giver who gives in love. The God at the end of this chain of reasoning is no impersonal force but the giving God of Scripture, the Father of Jesus, the God who is Love.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, February 8, 2010 at 12:32 pm
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