catechesis, are distinct from his earlier pre-papal work in that they represent a theological development and application of his personalist thought as expressed in his ordinary magisterium. Reflecting on his theological contribution as it relates to understanding the person, John Paul would later write in his 2001 Novo Millennio Ineunte: "The mystery of the Incarnation lays the foundations for an anthropology which, reaching beyond its own limitations and contradictions, moves towards God Himself, indeed towards the goal of 'divinization" (§23). Consequently, the theology of the body builds upon personalism in much the same way that Aquinas builds on Aristotle. Moreover, while John Paul focuses on marriage and sexuality, the implications of his approach are not limited to spousal love. Indeed, he maintains that the theology of the body will immerse us into "the perspective of the whole Gospel, of the whole teaching, in fact of the whole mission of Christ."24 As a result, it represents an entirely new theological approach whose full potential remains untapped.25

John Paul's theology of the body is grounded in a key passage found in Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes. It is a theme to which, throughout his many talks, he returns time and time again. It reads:

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one ... as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself. (Gaudium et Spes §24)

John Paul's theology of the body is shaped by what his personalism calls "a hermeneutic of the gift." It is essentially a broad and sweeping interpretation of reality in terms of self-donation. He describes this self-donation and its primary effect by saying that "the love in which the man-person becomes a gift and-by means of this gift-fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence."26 Like all gifts, it presupposes a willing giver and a receiver receptive to the gift. When the receiver freely accepts the gift from the giver

Love in the Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1997), which comprises 129 talks given by the Pope during his Wednesday audiences between September 1979 and November 1984.24 Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body, 175.25 See Weigel's comments in note 17 above.26 Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body, 63.

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The Establishment Hypothesis: Toward a More Integrated Theology of Holy Orders

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