God and Eros: The Ethos of the Nuptial Mystery

by Colin Patterson (Editor), Conor Sweeney (Editor)

Overview

What can God and eros have to do with each other? Against Nietzsche's claim that Christianity poisoned eros, God and Eros rereads the mystery of human love as an ecstatic sharing in the mystery of the triune God who is Love. Body, sex, and affectivity, far from being locked in a lower order called "nature," instead belong to a sacramental order that is permeated by the call to love. In presentations designed to appeal to a general audience, the faculty of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne, approach this mystery through the lens of St. John Paul II's "theology of the body," with the goal to both introduce and more clearly illumine its major features. In particular, emphasis is placed on how a theology of the body is not just about "sex." Rather, it is above all about how each and every person--no matter what her state of life--is stamped by the watermark of being-from and being-for. Working within this broader perspective, God and Eros offers the reader a lively, engaging, and at times challenging tour of the full "ethos of the nuptial mystery."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498280136
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	10/12/2015
Series:	20151012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	268
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Dr. Colin Patterson is Lecturer in Moral Theology and Psychology, John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne.

Dr. Conor Sweeney is Lecturer in Sacramental Theology and Postmodern Philosophy, John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne. He is the author of Sacramental Presence after Heidegger: Onto-Theology, Sacraments, and the Mother's Smile (Cascade, forthcoming).
Colin Patterson, a former psychologist and now an independent scholar, taught courses in theology and psychology at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne, Australia, until its closure in 2019. He is the author of Chalcedonian Personalism (2016).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors ix

Preface xi

Part I Approaching the Mystery

1 The Church and Human Sexuality: An Introduction Most Reverend Peter J. Elliott 3

2 The Culture Wars: Saint Pope John Paul II - Pope of the Civilization of Love Tracey Rowland 19

3 The Theology of the Body in Outline Adam G. Cooper 38

4 Communion with God: Marriage as Metaphor in the Old Testament Anna Silvas 60

5 God and Communion: Marriage as Sacrament in the New Testament Anna Silvas 73

6 The Story of God and Eros Adam G. Cooper 91

Part II Applying the Mystery

7 Bodily Love and the Imago Trinitatis Conor Sweeney 107

8 A Constructive Approach to Secularism Colin Patterson 123

9 The Role of Natural Law in Bioethics: Anthropocentrism or Theocentrism Nicholas Tonti-Filippini 136

10 The Family in the Life and Mission of the Church Owen Vyner 162

11 God and Eros: Six Implications for Religious Education Gerard O'Shea 177

12 Priestly Formation for Celibacy: Nuptial and Trinitarian Anna Krohn 191

13 Co-operators of the Truth of the Human Person Marc Cardinal Ouellet 212

Bibliography 227

Index of Themes 235

Index of Magisterial Documents 244

Index of Persons 245

Index of Scripture 248