Go ask Alice...

When she's ten feet taller than Christopher West...

.

Seriously. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand has leveled a reasonable criticism of Christopher West's popularization of John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

.

Renowned Catholic thinker Dr. Alice von Hildebrand has criticized Theology of the Body speaker Christopher West, saying his approach has become too self-assured. She criticized his presentations as irreverent and insensitive to the “tremendous dangers” of concupiscence.

.

“My feeling is that Christopher West has become famous because he started discussing the Theology of the Body, which is extremely appealing topic. The difficulty is that, in the meantime, he became so famous that I do believe he has become much too self-assured and has lost sight of the extreme sensitivity of the topic.” - Source

.

The doctor is in - and she nailed it. I have to wonder what Dr. von Hildebrand would say to the Polish priest who recently published his treatise on the joy of Catholic sex. "Sex in marriage, the Franciscan friar explains, should not be boring but "saucy, surprising and fantasy packed". Right - remember the news story about the Baptist minister who was murdered by his wife because he forced her to dress up like a whore, engage in sex acts that violated her sense of proprietry (sodomy), and forced her to have sex against her will?

.

Christopher West’s approach makes him forget that sex is “an extreme danger.” Though sex can be sanctified, that sanctification implies “a humility, a spirit of reverence, and totally avoiding the vulgarity that he uses in his language.”

.

The Fall had consequences that are “so serious” that it was only the Redemption and the grace of God could remedy.

.
The fight against concupiscence is “not an easy process,” Dr. von Hildebrand continued. “It is something that calls for holiness, which very few of us achieve. It is a sheer illusion to believe that by some sort of new technique we can find the solution to the problem.” - Source