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Teaching The Theology of the Body in Schools
Tommy Hughes, an RE teacher in Glasgow, explains how he has been able to get teens in schools to better understand the Church’s view of sex through the teaching of philosophy and getting them to think things through
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There are many challenges facing the teacher of religious education in Catholic schools today, none more so than teaching issues related to human sexuality. Faced with a culture that seems to have rejected any agreed norms in this area, teachers of religious education are faced with at least two challenges. At a personal level they may struggle to reconcile the teaching of the Church with the pressures of living in a culture that suggests to them that what the Church has to say in this area is from the dark ages and that anyone who has really come of age intellectually should reject it. At a professional level, they find themselves engaged with young people who ask very straight and very searching questions about the meaning of human sexuality and who, in what seems to be ever increasing numbers, freely embrace our promiscuous culture because they perceive what the Church has to say to them as the imposition of rules that bear no correlation with their experience. So how do we begin to address these challenges? Intellectual currents Primarily, it is imperative that the teacher of religious education has a grasp of the intellectual climate that gave rise to our current situation. Contemporary culture’s attitude to human sexuality did not come about by accident. What we are experiencing today is the fruit of various schools of philosophy which, at various times in history, have brought about an ever increasing change in how we understand what it means to be a person. - Two hundred and seventy years before the time of Christ, the Greek philosopher Epicurus espoused the view that humans are merely pleasure machines and that happiness comes from pleasure alone, giving rise to the philosophy known as Hedonism. - Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy would declare that to be a person was to be a thinkingthing and opened the way for a radical dualism between body and soul. - In the 18th century Jeremy Bentham would develop his Felicific Calculus, claiming that this could measure how much pleasure developed. - Utilitarianism, held that the morally good act was that which brough the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people - Join all of this with Kant’s view that we cannot
know what is objectively real (noumena) but only what is subjectively
present (phenomena) and we have the foundation of our contemporary culture’s
approach to problems related to human sexuality; it is all about pleasure;
it is really only our Knowing this provides the teacher of religious education with a context in which the teaching of the Church makes clear intellectual sense, but also, and this is critical, provides the possibility of beginning the journey of metanoia (a change of heart) in which the personal assimilation of what the Church teaches becomes a lived reality and, subsequently, tangible witness. Moreover, in relation to our youngsters this provides the opportunity of critically involved them in the process of how the teaching of the Church really corresponds to their deepest longings to be loved and to love. How can this be done? The response In the Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul II presents us with a wonderful vision of human sexuality and married love, articulating the Church’s teaching with a new richness. He is anxious to demonstrate that we can know the truth about human sexuality and married love by properly understanding what it means to be a person. Reflecting on the creation of man and woman as presented in the book of Genesis, he explains that the body is not just a machine that we inhabit but should rather be viewed as “sacrament” of the person. Through my body I touch others and others enter into communion with me. However, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we are most like God when we enter into communion with another, or others, because God is a communion of persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. I can only discover who I really am by the free donation of myself to another in love, and so John Paul II teaches us that the true meaning of sexuality and married love is written into our very natures as man and woman. The most fundamental form of human communion is found in marriage and the most intimate expression of this communion, is through the bodies of the husband and wife in which they speak, through the “language of the body”, their total gift to each other in sexual intercourse. This total giving of husband and wife reflects the inner life of God as Trinity and embodies the self-giving of God in creation, because it carries within this self gift, the power of procreation which gives life to the future of humanity. Sixth form It was with this teaching of our Holy Father in mind that I produced a programme of study for our sixth form pupils entitled Love and Responsibility about the book that Pope John Paul published during his time as Archbishop of Krakow. Two years ago, I embarked on the study of the unit with my classes, devising an approach to teaching and learning which involved the pupils in the study of the sources, writing their own responses to questions, discussing those questions with their peers in groups and then dialoguing with me as they expressed their own opinions and began to learn as I challenged them to think about the way they think! What were they studying and thinking about?
I began where they were, asking them what they thought about sex before marriage, contraception, pornography, homosexuality and living together. I thought I knew how they would all respond, but was surprised to find that many of them don’t think living together is the same as marriage and some of them argued that contraception was wrong. I introduced them to some basic philosophy, particularly Hedonism, Utilitarianism and Moral Relativism because, as argued above, these are the main philosophical positions that have shaped the contemporary view of the human person. They found this challenging but very interesting. Their answers were sometimes funny and sometimes quite fantastic. They had begun to learn. Fromt there, I led them to think about what it means to be a person as body and soul and from there to thinking about the Natural Law. I could see them change as they reflected more deeply on what it means to be a “person” rather tha a “thing” and we hadn’t even looked at sex yet! This laid the foundation for introducing John Paul II’s thought. Using contemporary examples from television programmes such as “Sex and the City” and “Coronation Street”, we explored why relationships were shattered when one partner betrayed another by having sex with another person. They could clearly explain why this happened, articulating and identifying in their own way, the meaning of the “language of the body” that John Paul II speaks about. They grew in knowledge of the “safe sex hoax”, learning that the problem with contraception is much deeper than avoidance of diseases. They learned that the opposite of loving was not “to hate” but “to use another” person. They learned that the truth about sexuality and married love is not something that is imposed on them from above by a “kill joy” Church, but is written into the nature of their very being by a loving Father who wants them to have life in all its fullness. I didn’t set out to change their minds, that would have been fatal to the whole process, but I did hope to open some hearts and from the feedback I received from the classes I think that happened for many of them. On-going legacy At the suggestion of the RE Adviser for the archdiocese of Glasgow, Bill Horton, I delivered a two day training programme on the “Theology of the Body” in the Sixth Form in May 2004 which was attended by over 30 principal teachers and teachers of religious education from dioceses throughout Scotland. The feedback received from the training was excellent and schools are reporting that pupils are responding very positively to the programme of study. Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” is not just a wonderful legacy to the Church; it is both gift and task. His gift is an adequate anthropology which enables us to make philosophical and theological sense of what it means to be a person in relation to human sexuality and love. The task? Do not be afraid! Recognise the tremendous opportunity we have to transform the lives of our youngsters with the splendour of the truth concerning human sexuality; and with sensitivity, love and courage, engage them with it.
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