{"id":2495,"date":"2008-08-03T21:14:46","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T02:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2008\/08\/03\/heavens-song\/"},"modified":"2008-08-03T21:14:46","modified_gmt":"2008-08-04T02:14:46","slug":"heavens-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2008\/08\/heavens-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven's Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a paper copy of Heaven’s
\nSong: Sexual Love as It Was Meant to Be<\/a> by
\nChristopher West which will be published in September of this year.
\n Once again he has done a great job of teaching the Theology
\nof the Body as developed by John Paul II in an accessible manner.<\/p>\n

The new book is based on the so-called
\n“hidden” talks of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. These
\nundelivered addresses were discovered in the Vatican archive
\nand until recently were only in the Polish edition of “A Theology of
\nthe Body.”  Michael Waldstein translated these into English in
\n2006 in the book Man
\nand Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body<\/a>.
\n The new material goes into  the Song of Songs and
\nthe Old Testament marriage of Tobias and Sarah from the book of Tobit
\nalong with material that would have not been appropriate for
\na General Audience.<\/p>\n

The format of the book is that he starts
\nwith short stories of real life people
\nand their common difficulties and then how they addressed using the
\nTheology of the Body and then goes on from there.  Each
\nchapter also ends with a section
\nfor reflections and a prayer. Christopher West then explains Pope John
\nPaul II’s teaching starting off with the Song of Song.  This
\nOld Testament book is often passed over by many because we miss the
\ndeeper meaning of the book and people can be put of by the erotic
\npoetry it contains.  They mystics though often included the
\nSong of Songs as one of their favorites and wrote on it.
\n From St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Saint Louis
\nde Montfort, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguor and others were nourished by
\nthese texts.  Christopher West refers to these saints as he
\nexpands upon the work of Pope John Paul II. Sometimes people are
\nscandalized by the comparison of the sexual union of man and life as a
\nmetaphor for the relationship of God and man.  Some
\nProtestants are scandalized by the writings of  St. Alphonsus
\nMaria de Liguor and I have seen his writings quoted by anti-Catholics.<\/p>\n

The total misunderstanding of sex goes
\nthrough all levels of society
\nfrom the secular to the religious.  The book explores the
\ndeeper meaning of sex as being sacred and how the Song of Songs relates
\nto this.  This is really a wonderful scripture study of the
\nSong of Songs that opens it up and helps you see past the
\nprose that looks quite awkward through modern eyes.  These
\nsections are worth the price of the book in themselves.  Once
\nI first read the Book of Tobit it quick became one of my favorite Old
\nTestament books, but I certainly missed much of the meaning of the
\nbook.  Pope John Paul II’s catechesis relating to Tobit is a
\ntreasure and one that all married couples and those preparing for
\nmarriage need to be introduced this understanding. <\/p>\n

Christopher West has a great talent in
\npresenting deep theology in such a way that you are not put off, but
\nare drawn deeper into it.  His latest book is no exception and
\nlike all of his book you don’t need to read anything of his beforehand
\n– they all stand alone.  I highly recommend Heaven’s Song.<\/p>\n

If Pope John Paul II ever becomes a Doctor
\nof the Church it will be because of The Theology of the Body which is a
\ngreat gift to the Church and one that the world certainly needs.<\/p>\n

This review is part of the Catholic Company’s Product Review Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received a paper copy of Heaven’s Song: Sexual Love as It Was Meant to Be by Christopher West which will be published in September of this year.  Once again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}