Review: At the Heart of the Gospel: Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization

At the Heart of the Gospel: Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization by Christopher West

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



As far as stars go, this book falls between three and four, I more than "liked it", but less than "really liked it". Still, I gave it four stars because it is an important and edifying book on John Paul II's Theology of the Body (TOB).

I read At the Heart of the Gospel(2012)on the heels of reading West's Theology of the Body Explained (2003). I don't know what happened between 2003 and 2012, but West's tone in At the Heart is decisively conciliatory, and at times literally apologetic.

At the Heart seems to have been written in response to a variety of arguments and criticisms leveled at West from a various people, including some who are Catholic.

I'm still trying to understand West's aims in writing At the Heart. For one, the book has the feel of a flashback episode tv show. He apologizes (several times) for not making certain issues central to the TOB clear in the previous TOBE, and he quotes extensively from his previous work. He also appears to try to shore up his previous understanding of TOB with more references from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as to John Paul II's original texts. And he quotes extensively from a variety of other sources, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's pronouncements, which can be taken as substantiating or explaining West's hermeneutics, along with several Professors of Theology from around the world.

Having read West's comprehensive and authoritative TOBE I'm not convinced that At the Heart absolutely had to be written, other than to primarily grind a few axes against his critics. Without more context, and possibly naming the critics West seems to address, it is difficult for the reader to get involved in the issues that propelled West into writing At the Heart.

Of course many people (traditionalists) will balk at Bl. John Paul II's new body-centered theology. So what? As West says, criticism is healthy, that's how the finer points of doctrine get disclosed.

Yes, it seems that some of the attacks were malicious and personal. See Index I, where West feels compelled to explain that he has never said, nor agrees with, the view attributed to him about the Church's acceptance of certain sexual practices - you'll have to look at it yourselves, I'm trying to keep this a "family rated" review. The tone and subject matter found in Index I could have been written in a blog post instead of a book.

At the Heart of the Gospel is definitely worth a read for someone new to the idea/debate of Bl. John Paul II's Theology of the Body, but I did not see a need for this book, given all the information contained in TOBE, and all the references to this previous work with little to no different further explanations.




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