John Paul II clearly states that his goal is to develop a view of the human person that he calls an “adequate anthropology.” While in English the word “adequate” often means a somewhat-partial or so-so approach (“It was an adequate response.”), for John Paul II adequate means much more – it mean a “thorough” or complete anthropology. In other words, John Paul II’s goal was to develop a view of the human person that explains how and why we are made in the image and likeness of God as male and female. In his apostolic letter, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women,” section 1, he put it this way: “It is a question of understanding the reason for and the consequences of the Creator’s decision that the human being should always and only exist as a woman or a man.”

To be even more specific, in Audience 7, John Paul II says theology of the body is an anthropology, a metaphysics, and an ethics. He wants to treat who the human person is (anthropology), what reality is, including the realm beyond what we can see (metaphysics), and how we should act (ethics). In short, theology of the body is a profound analysis of human identity based on Scripture and Divine Revelation. As a result, John Paul II uses the structure of salvation history as the framework for the first half of theology of the body (which is why theology of the body has such great catechetical potential!).

In the three panel that comprise the first half, what I like to call John Paul II’s “trilogy,” he reflects on the following: 1) the human person before original sin (God’s original plan); 2) the human person after original sin (our wounding by sin and redemption in Christ); and 3) the human person’s ultimate destiny (our perfection in eternity and how this is anticipated by the celibate vocation).

Only after developing this theological anthropology does John Paul II turn in the second half to marriage and its sacramentality (Panel 4) and finally to the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception and sexual morality as articulated by Humanae Vitae (Panel 5).

I have been struck recently by how John Paul II didn’t begin with morality. He began by painstakingly developing an understanding of the human person made in the image and likeness of a Trinitarian God and only afterwards did he address how we should act. This means that theology of the body is first and foremost a work about human identity: it answers “Who am I?” and “Why was I created?” before it answers “How should I act?” As a result, knowing who we are (ontology) comes before determining how we should act (morality). Or, as the philosophical adage says: Action follows being.

Throughout theology of the body, John Paul II develops vocabulary and concepts that are unique to his particular way of “doing” theology, and it is this vocabulary that often makes theology of the body difficult to read. However, these new terms also make theology of the body very rewarding because they open up a new way of seeing creation and the human person in a sacramental manner, in a way in which the body and all created matter is indispensable for revealing God and communicating his divine life and love. This is why I ultimately like to describe the heart of theology of the body as “the body reveals God!”