I note that Christopher West was on Al Kresta's show on Tuesday, but there is no archived audio available. I was able to listen to only 10 minutes of it. Even if Mr. West correctly provides the substance of Catholic teaching on sex, marriage, and love (and this is contested), his rhetoric concerning theology of the body is irksome. He doesn't engage in self-promotion as much as promotion of theology of the body, prone to exaggerated claims about its significance and novelty. (Too much of a "John Paul II Catholic"?) Taking what the manuals (and earlier works of moral theology) said about sexual morality in isolation may give the disorted picture that the pre-theology of the body treatment of married love was dry, inadequate, etc. But a scientific treatment of moral theology will proceed with its analysis in such a manner -- it is up to the teacher to remind the students to re-integrate what has been broken down back into a broader understanding of the Christian vocation and of caritas. Moreover, I suspect that there weren't a few books intended for a more popular audience that dealt with married life and so on, rather than just the morality of sex acts. Certainly many of the Church's saints have dealt with marriage in their preaching and writings. It seems to me that at the very least, there is some poor history (and historiography) at work in Mr. West's marketing of theology of the body.

I did hear him explain his comparison of John Paul II and Hugh Hefner (which got so much attention in his Nightline appearance), and I think he gets Hugh Hefner's personal history wrong. Was he really reacting to a Puritan mentality regarding sex? Or was there something else deviant to explain for his actions? As for the priest Karol Wojtyla, was he really dealing with negative attitudes towards sex on the part of Catholics?

He took one caller from a woman who did not have any interest in sex, and first recommended that she read Love and Responsibility, assuming that she was feeling that way because her husband was only interested in her for pleasure. (I think what she actually said that she wasn't interested in sex, and only had relations in order to give her husband pleasure.) Then he suggested that she seek marriage counseling. (Did he realize that there might be a different issue at work here?)

There have been criticisms of Pope John Paul II for putting women on a pedestal. Is this true of Christopher West? Does he recognize the psychological differences between women and men, and how this affects their personal dynamics, especially in sexual matters?

Related:
Love and Responsibility Lecture Series