John Paul II offers a profound and subtle analysis of the the sources of sexual deviance in his theology of the body. The steps are:
1. Lust is a disorder of the spirit, and breaks the natural bond between body and soul. Men no longer act as single simple beings, their bodily actions an expression of a person.
2. This is linked to shame. Due to the breakdown of the unity of spirit and body, human beings lose the confidence that their bodies express their persons. Lacking such confidence in the “spousal meaning of the body” and the gifted character of creation, men want to hide their bodies from visibility. They no longer are certain of their right to signify their presence in the visible world, no longer confident of being images of God.
3) Yet, there remains a desire for union. The self-communicative nature of bodily actions, particularly of sexual knowledge, isn’t erased by sin. But lust distorts that desire. Instead of pursuing sexual union as a means of self-expressing self-gift, men pursue sexual union as self-gratification carried out on an “object” (not another subject) of desire. Because of shame, however, a screen is erected between men and women, and so that union is never satisfied. It becomes an insatiable desire.
4) In the process, of course, men and women become objects of mutual lust. The goal of sex is not to communicate myself to my beloved, but to take and possess and dominate the “object” of lust. Genesis 3:16 captures this with the desire of the woman in an inner connection with the domination of the man. It’s not surprising that a humanity that fell with the seizure of fruit should develop a sexual culture in with seizure and domination are paramount.
5) All of these evils arise from a disorder of the spirit caused by sin. But the body gets blamed.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
