Workshop 7
A Foundational Vision: Theology of the Body
David Hajduk, PhD – Adjunct Professor of Moral Theology
WEEK 18
1. Back to the Beginning
Objective: Teachers will distinguish divine intentionality in the order of creation, especially relating to sexuality.
• The meaning behind human life, love, marriage, and sex
• The intentionality behind God’s creating
WEEK 19
2. The Universal Vocation to Love
Objective: Teachers will recognize their freedom to choose to love well.
• We are set apart from other creatures in that we have freedom to choose what to do with our lives, with our bodies - we are responsible for how we act
• Humans are set apart by our capacity to love, because love requires the freedom to choose to love
WEEK 20
3. Understanding the Gift of Ourselves
Objective: Educators will evaluate the importance of self-mastery in order to love fully.
• “Man is person precisely because he possesses himself and has dominion over himself. Indeed, inasmuch as he is master over himself, he can ‘give himself’ to another.”
• We cannot give of ourselves to another if we are not in control of ourselves, and seeing both ourselves and the other as worthy of being a gift
• Self-mastery is essential to be able to love and be loved
WEEK 21
4. Love versus Lust
Objective: Teachers will judge every person as valuable, with both a body and soul worth self-sacrificing love.
• We are called to be loving, to be in communion with others and with God, and to give of ourselves in a self-sacrificial love that seeks the good of the beloved
• Every person is a composite of body and soul, but lust is seeing the other only through their body
WEEK 22
5. Speaking the Language of God’s Love
Objective: Educators will discuss the importance of using our bodies to reflect our values.
• Our bodies are meant to communicate God’s love to others
• Sexual union must be an act of pure, self-giving love
• The unitive and generative aspects of the sexual act are both necessary in signifying the truth of God’s love
• Without either the generative or unitive aspects, the sexual act becomes one of use and not pure love
WEEK 23
6. Salvation Awaits Us
Objective: Teachers will employ practical ways of giving of themselves, rather than taking.
• Threefold concupiscence, love of the world, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, all incline us to take rather than give away
• Practical tips on how to become pure of heart and practice giving rather than taking
• The call to love through the goodness of our bodies as a total sacrifice for the other
WEEK 24
7. Our Bodies are the Lord’s
Objective: Teachers will identify the harm of pornography and masturbation, devising how to best love and help those who struggle with an addiction.
• Chastity is not merely saying “no” to a long list of things, it is saying “yes” to the plan of God, in which sex and our sexuality are sacred
• The epidemic of pornography especially among the young
• Pornography, masturbation, and other sexual sins make us slaves to our passions and don’t give us true happiness
• How to minister to students struggling with sexual temptations
WEEK 25
8. Our Identity as Children of God
Objective: Teachers will strategize how best to assist students experiencing same-sex attractions in living chaste lives through recognition of the beauty of the natural law.
• Same-sex attraction is a normal stage of adolescence
• All sexual perversions should be recognized as sins
• How to explain the truths of our human nature in a loving way to those struggling with same-sex attractions