Introduction to Theology of the Body – Page 3 – Ruah Woods Psychological Services

Original Shame — Part 1

June 20, 2023/in Introduction to Theology of the Body /by Dr. Andrew Sodergren

As we have been exploring the nature and effects of original sin on humanity, it is now time to plunge into the reality of shame with the help of Pope St. John Paul II. We could hope for no better guide. As a poet, pastor, philosopher, and theologian, he reflected deeply on the experience of shame. In Theology of the Body alone, he used the term “shame” 136 times and another closely related term 33 times. He also wrote an extensive reflection on “the metaphysics of shame” in his prior book Love and Responsibility. Let’s see what we can learn from his insights.

The pope took Genesis 3:9-10 as his starting point. There we read, “The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” John Paul II saw our first parents’ new impulse to hide from God and from one another because of their perceived “nakedness” as evidence of the birth of shame in their hearts. He described this shame as a “boundary experience” because it demarcates original man and historical man, now affected by original sin (TOB 11:3ff).

It is important to clarify that original shame pertains not merely to physical nakedness. According to John Paul II, “‘Nakedness’ does not have only a literal meaning: it does not refer only to the body” (TOB 27:2). After all, God sees not only the body but also the depths of man’s heart. Indeed, our first parents were ashamed before God in part because they perceived the loss of harmony within them. They perceived their lack of full self-possession due to sin. Their interior life is now marked by disharmony and conflict.

Furthermore, because of original sin, the visible world is no longer docile to man’s authority but rebels against him. The forces of nature now threaten man, and his work to cultivate the world is marked by suffering and toil. The “resistance of nature against man and his tasks” gives rise to “cosmic shame,” which expresses a “sense of insecurity” and an “awareness of being defenseless” in a now hostile world. “The end of this toil, of this struggle of man with the earth, is death” (TOB 27:4).

Thus, our first parents experience shame over the loss of harmonious self-possession and mastery over nature. But why would they — or us — wish to hide from the God who is love, who created humanity out of nothing, and who bestows wondrous gifts? It is because they have become “alienated from the Love that was the source of the original gift” of creation, “the source of the fullness of good intended for the creature” (TOB 27.2). Through the influence of the tempter, man doubted God’s goodness and that Love is the ultimate meaning and motive behind creation. By believing the words of the tempter and acting upon them, man turned his back on our loving Father and “in some sense cast him from his heart” cutting humanity off “from that which ‘comes from the Father’” leaving only “what ‘comes from the world’” in its place (TOB 26:4). “Shame touches in that moment the deepest level and seems to shake the very foundation of their existence.” It gives rise to an urge to hide from God showing that “a sense of fear before God has matured: a fear previously unknown” (TOB 27:1, italics in original).

This fear is entirely different from the “fear of the Lord” praised in Scripture. The latter refers to awe and wonder in the presence of the all-holy God. It is closely related to reverence and is an essential and wholesome spiritual attitude for all of us to cultivate. Conversely, the fear that flows from original shame stems from doubting God’s goodness. If God is not pure goodness, then how can we let Him “see” us? How can we trust Him enough to let Him come to us at our worst moments? I invite all of us to reflect on the many ways we, like our first parents, hide from God because we struggle to believe that in the face of our brokenness and sin, He could possibly continue to see good in us, just as we in turn struggle to see His pure, infinite goodness.

Note: This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Continue Reading: Original Shame – Part 2

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, February 2023 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

Original Shame — Part 2

June 20, 2023/in Introduction to Theology of the Body /by Dr. Andrew Sodergren

As described in my previous article, Pope St. John Paul II regarded the emergence of shame in the wake of the original sin committed by our first parents as a “boundary experience” that demarcates original man and historical man. Prior to this experience, man and woman were naked and felt no shame, but after their rebellion and fall from grace, they hid themselves from God and from each other. Last month, we looked especially on the impact of original shame on man’s relationship with God. Let’s now look at how it has impacted the relationship between the sexes.

Original shame reflects a decisive shift in the relationship between man and woman. Prior to original sin, we have seen that our first parents experienced a “fullness of consciousness of the meaning of the body” reflected in their experience of being naked without shame (TOB 12.3). The purity of vision they enjoyed enabled them to see the inner reality of the person made in God’s image revealed through the body and moved them to affirm the dignity of the person in all their interactions. Their desires, including for sexual union, were fully integrated with this purity of vision and intention toward one another. Being in the state of original innocence and filled with God’s grace, their interior and interpersonal lives were fully ordered toward love and respect for the person.

After their fall from grace, the situation of our first parents radically changed. The man begins to experience shame in regard to the woman and vice versa. This “reciprocal shame” “compels them to cover their nakedness, to hide their own bodies, to withdraw from man’s sight what constitutes the visible sign of femininity and from woman’s sight what constitutes the visible sign of masculinity” (TOB 28.1). Pope St. John Paul II attributed this sexual shame to the emergence of concupiscence.

Concupiscence refers to the inclination to sin that all of us experience because we inherit a fallen, wounded human nature. It emerged in our first parents after original sin, which damaged the harmonious integration they had experienced within themselves and in their relationships with God, each other, and the rest of creation. In particular, after original sin, “the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman become subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination” (CCC, 400).

The disharmony within the human person naturally leads to disharmony between man and woman. Their desires for one another are no longer properly ordered and instinctively guided by truth and love. Rather, when they see one another’s bodies, they now see primarily the exterior features rather than the interior reality of the person. The purity of vision that previously enabled them to always behold the dignity of the person now gives “up its place to the mere sensation of ‘sexuality’” (TOB 29.3). With concupiscence, man and woman are now prone to see each other as objects of use. Indeed, we struggle to see the inner reality and dignity of the person revealed by the body and tend to settle merely on the exterior features, judging and evaluating according to our selfish purposes.

This situation gives rise to shame between man and woman in two ways. First, we experience shame because we are aware that we are not in control of our desires toward each other and the bodily manifestations of these. We experience sexual feelings and respond to sexual signals even when we do not will it. Shame moves us to hide this inner state of disorder and the bodily manifestations of it from one another. Secondly, shame emerges to protect us from the now disordered gaze of others. Sensing that others may see us in a disordered way, shame takes on a protective function, moving us to conceal the sexual features of our bodies and exercise modesty. We will delve more into this positive, protective aspect of shame next time.

Note: This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Continue Reading: Original Shame – Part 3

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, March 2023 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

Original Shame — Part 3

June 19, 2023/in Introduction to Theology of the Body /by Dr. Andrew Sodergren

With their fall from grace, our first parents experienced a decisive shift in their relationship marked by what I have been referring to as original shame. In my last article, I discussed how this experience emerged because of the new state of internal and interpersonal disharmony in which the man and woman found themselves. Original sin caused a weakening of “control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body” and brought about “tensions” between man and woman, “their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination” (CCC, 400). Catholic tradition refers to this inner state of disorder that leads to lust and domination, which we all inherit, as concupiscence.

Because of this new situation that the man and woman found themselves in, they experienced a new urge to cover the signs of their sexuality, which John Paul II referred to as “reciprocal shame” (TOB 28.1). Being a result of sin, it is not hard to see this new experience of shame as a bad thing. Clearly, it’s not supposed to be this way. We were made for communion, not hiding. However, God never abandons man and always seeks with His infinite power, wisdom, and love to draw good out of evil. In this light, even our experience of shame can be used to guide us back to a deeper appreciation of the dignity of the human body. Let us examine how.

In contemporary psychology, shame is typically seen as toxic for the human person. This is because psychologists tend to equate shame with the experience of seeing oneself as bad, defective, or unworthy. If I see myself in this way, I will dread self-disclosure because I anticipate that I will be harshly treated and rejected by others. In the face of such a situation, mental health professionals — myself and my colleagues included — work to increase self-acceptance and awareness of one’s goodness.

While this contemporary approach to shame is valuable, it differs significantly from Pope St. John Paul II’s use of the term in TOB and his prior work Love and Responsibility. When he spoke of shame, especially the reciprocal shame experienced by man and woman, he had in mind the urge to hide the sexual features of our bodies from one another. This flows from our experience of concupiscence. Shame moves us instinctively to shield from the eyes of the other those aspects of our bodies most connected with sexuality because we perceive that others may look upon our bodies not as the sacrament of the person but as mere objects to be used. Thus, shame, in this sense, is a reaction to the possibility of being used.

In TOB and Love and Responsibility, the saintly pope wrote extensively about how the dignity of the human person requires that we never treat another human being as merely an object of use. Rather, the only proper response to another person is love. He applied this “personalistic norm” especially to the relations between man and woman in which the sexual appeal of the body — in the presence of concupiscence — can become a source of temptation to use the other for my own selfish purposes. Shame moves us to prevent this by “concealing the sexual values in order to protect the value of the person” (LR, p. 165, emphasis added). In this sense, shame is very closely related to, and a building block of, the virtue of modesty. This has nothing to do with a prudish view of the body or sex as inherently bad or evil. Rather, as Pope St. John Paul II repeatedly affirmed, sexual shame can actually help reawaken in us an appreciation for how good and even sacred our sexuality is. He wrote that through shame, man and woman “become conscious of the spousal meaning of the body” and are moved “to protect it” (TOB 31.1). In protecting the spousal meaning of the body, we implicitly say to ourselves and others, “Behold, it is very good” (Gen 1:31).

Note: This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Continue Reading: The Problem of Shamelessness

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, April 2023 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

The Problem of Shamelessness

June 19, 2023/in Introduction to Theology of the Body /by Dr. Andrew Sodergren

In recent articles, we have explored the emergence of shame in our first parents and all subsequent human beings after original sin. We saw how the emergence of concupiscence results in the experience of reciprocal shame by man and woman, which moves us to conceal the sexual features of our bodies from one another. Because concupiscence has been born in man’s heart, we are aware that when we look on each other’s bodies, we do not easily and immediately see the person in his or her fullness. Our eyes have, in a sense, been darkened by sin such that our vision may only take in the exterior features of the body, which we judge and evaluate as to the potential pleasure or usefulness it may bring.

This awareness of our concupiscence gives rise to shame, which moves us to conceal the sexual features of the body so that we do not become objects of others’ disordered desires. This experience of shame has nothing to do with seeing sexuality as bad or dirty. Rather, shame understood in this way reminds us of our dignity and the sacredness of human sexuality by protecting us from being used as mere objects. This form of shame is a healthy building block for the virtue of modesty.

Understanding the important role of shame in the lives of fallen human beings also sheds light on the problems of shamelessness so evident today. One form of shamelessness involves the normalization of lust (i.e., disordered sexual desire). When lustful actions and attitudes are given approval or even celebrated, an attitude of shamelessness is being expressed and promoted: the human body is seen only as a sexual object for use without any regard for the person. Another form of shamelessness is when the human body is portrayed in such a way that its sexual appeal is accentuated above and beyond the value of the person. This can be in forms of dress, behavior, and in artistic representations. The most common example of this today is pornography.

In TOB, Pope St. John Paul II contrasts pornographic representations of the human body with other artistic uses of the nude human form (see TOB 60-63). The difference between porn and an appropriate artistic rendering of a naked human being originates in the intention of the artist. In the latter case, the intention is to depict the human person revealed through his body in a dignified way whereas in the former, the intention is merely to present an anonymous human body as an object of lustful desire. Indeed, pornography obscures the reality of the person and overaccentuates the sexual features of the body. In this way, it turns the human body — and therefore the human person — into a mere object (i.e., an impersonal thing) to be used for selfish pleasure and even a commodity to be bought and sold.

The Catechism condemns pornography in no uncertain terms saying that it “offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act.” It goes on to say that pornography

“does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public) since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense” (no. 2354).

Indeed, the Church’s opposition to pornography is so absolute, that the Catechism exhorts governments to make it illegal: “Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (no. 2354). Given all that Pope St. John Paul II has taught us about the dignity of the human person and the spousal meaning of the body, this should come as no surprise. Next month, I will further diagnose the problems of pornography with the help of modern psychology.

Note: This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, May 2023 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

Original Shame — Part 1

Original Shame — Part 2

Original Shame — Part 3

The Problem of Shamelessness

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