Theology of the Body papers posted on Patheos blog

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Some students of Associate Professor of Philosophy Nathan Schlueter’s class on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body will have the opportunity to have one of their papers published on a blog.
This past semester, Schlueter taught a class based on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. The Theology of the Body presents man as an embodied subject understood through the image of Christ, created in the likeness of God. The culmination of this class was to produce a presentation and paper which analyzed some aspect of culture through the lens of the book.
“The final assignment that I gave them was to choose some element of culture — that is, a book, a novel, a story, a movie, a song, a video, a poem —choose some element of culture and interpret it through the lens of Theology of the Body,” Schlueter said. “Show me if it can illuminate that work of art and if that work of art can illuminate the Theology of the Body.”
This type of assignment is not uncommon for any students of the Theology of the Body, whether they are formally trained in a classroom or not.
Kathryn Wales, wife of Assistant Professor of Theology Jordan Wales, has written this type of paper before.
She had written a piece on the movie “Groundhog Day,” which she interpreted through the Theology of the Body. The piece was posted on a site called New Advent where Schlueter found it. Schlueter used her piece as an example of what he wanted his students to do but was unaware that Wales had written it.
“He used my article as a prompt, or example, of what he had in mind. When I found out, I wrote to him and said ‘Thank you for promoting my writing,’ but he didn’t know I had written it. He was like ‘What? We have to talk,’” Wales said.
From there, Wales sat in on some of the presentations that Schlueter’s students gave.
“The second time I sat in on Dr. Schlueter’s presentations, at one point he turned to me and said, ‘We need to take this show on the road,’” Wales said.
That statement sparked the idea to publish some of the student papers on a blog. Wales had been approached by the editor of the Catholic channel on a site called Patheos. Wales had declined Patheos’ initial offer to transfer her original blog to their sphere. Wales approached the editor with the idea to publish the student Theology of the Body papers on Patheos. Patheos agreed and the Love Among the Ruins blog was born. Love Among the Ruins is solely dedicated to Theology of the Body.
Junior Mattie Vander Bleek’s piece on “When Harry Met Sally” is the next scheduled piece to be published on Love Among the Ruins. She said the movie became more understandable when thinking about it the way John Paul was teaching.
“The story is very much classic romantic comedy, boy meets girl, with this whole question — can men and women be friends and how do they have a good, effective relationship?” Vander Bleek said. “John Paul II explains the different elements of problems in relationships and what makes them successful and what makes them fail. It was easier to characterize the motives for the characters in the movie… You see these characters ascribing to modern philosophies and coming up empty and if you start to look at it in the way that John Paul is describing, you see what they’re really after is something more satisfying and something that can be explained better through what love is theologically speaking.”
Schlueter said he is excited for the opportunity that these students have to show their work outside of Hillsdale.
“This is really a great opportunity for people outside of Hillsdale to see the [the pieces]. The quality of these pieces really reflects on the intelligence and character of our students. It shows that this is not a bubble they’re getting here,” Schlueter said.
To see the blog posts visit http://www.patheos.com/blogs/loveamongtheruins/. If you know of anyone at Hillsdale or at another college who would like to produce pieces like this, or if you yourself have a submission, contact Kathryn Wales at brightly.kathryn@gmail.com.