Earlier his papal career, the last pope, John Paul II, gave a multi-year series of landmark lectures promoting what one promoter describes as an "integrated vision of the human person - body, soul, and spirit."
What can United Methodists and other Christians who do not accept key points of Roman Catholic doctrine learn from the late Pope's Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan? What helpful or at least provocative theological insights might have to offer us on such questions as:
- What is the real dignity of the created human person?
- Why were we created male and female, and what does that teach us about God?
- What is the deepest meaning of human sexuality, and how does spousal love reflect divine love?
- How does this "Theology of the Body" specifically address secular Western culture's popular notion "that our bodies are nothing more than material objects to be used (or abused) for personal pleasure of convenience"?
These and other intriguing questions will be addressed at this event on Thursday, May 21 from 9:30am - 5:00pm at the Sheridan Hotel in New Bern, North Carolina. The "official" information on the gathering can be found here. The key speaker will be Dr. Paul J. Griffiths, a professor at Duke Divinity School.
The event is sponsored by the New Bern District of the United Methodist Church, Lifewatch, and Transforming Congregations.
