Holy Eros: A Liturgical Theology of the Body

In John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, the sexed human body speaks a language revealing God’s creative design and heralding humanity’s ultimate goal in the nuptial union of Christ and the Church. In a similar way, the Church, the body of Christ, anticipates her future nuptial union with Christ here and now through the “body language” of her public worship. Holy Eros combines insights from the great Pope’s theology of the body with traditional and contemporary liturgical studies, allowing each to shed light on the other. It shows how the various rituals of the Church, and the “shape” proper to the liturgical gathering, engage us as performative, physical enactments which actuate the spiritual and divine realities they signify, making heavenly marriage real on earth.