In this monograph, Professor José Miguel Granados offers us the fruit of the course he has taught for years at the Faculty of Theology "San Dámaso" on marriage and the family in the light of the Theology of the Body of St. John Paul II.
Juan Antonio Reig, the author organizes the work in ten chapters that unravel in an informative and didactic way the treasure of the legacy of the holy Polish pope. The method of the catechesis on human love is very original. The convergence or circularity between divine Revelation and human experience makes it possible to delve into the rich meanings inscribed in the human body, marked by sexual difference.
The first three chapters of the volume explain the contents of the triptych of the Theology of the Body. The three principal mysteries of our faith-creation, redemption and resurrection-become three foci of light to penetrate the mystery of man, male and female. Once the main features of the proper anthropology have been explained, in the fourth and fifth chapters, the spousal vocation is broken down into the twofold modality of virginity (and celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven) and marriage. Both vocations illuminate each other.
The sixth and seventh chapters analyze the love of conjugal communion and its characteristic notes: fidelity, exclusivity, indissolubility and fruitfulness. Taking as its main source the sixth cycle of the catechesis, which is dedicated to commenting on the encyclical Humanae vitae. The logic of self-giving is the key to penetrate the mystery of fruitfulness. All true love is fruitful and children are the most precious fruit of conjugal love.
Finally, in the last three chapters of the work, the social protagonism of marriage and the family as the vital cell of society, cultural deformations and the influence of certain ideologies, as well as the meaning of the ecclesial identity of marriage and the family, are addressed.
The volume offers as a colophon an explanatory list of fundamental concepts, as well as a select bibliography. In this way, readers are offered a work of very accessible reading for the general public, where the Gospel of marriage and the family is clearly and orderly presented, following the main intuitions of the magisterium of St. John Paul II, which have found their prolongation in the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Francis.
