By WIlliam E. May

The zenith of John Paul II's thought on the human person, marriage, and the family is found in his "Theology of the Body." For the first time, William E. May provides a comprehensive yet readable overview of this work in the context of several other key writings of Karol Wojtyla /John Paul II, providing rich insights into its development.

Works surveyed include Love and Responsibility, Familiaris consortio, Mulieris dignitatem, and Letter to Families.

"In this book I want to show how Love and Responsibility, a profound, challenging, and difficult work, helps prepare the way for TOB. I will then show how the teaching found in Familiaris Consortio, written when TOB was about halfway completed, embraces many of TOB's key ideas and themes. I will conclude by considering two documents written after TOB was completed, the apostolic letters Mulieris Dignitatem and Letter to Families. I will thus take up the writings in this order: (1) Love and Responsibility, (2) Familiaris Consortio, (3) Theology of the Body, and (4) Mulieris Dignitatem and Letter to Families." -From the Introduction

• Binding: Paperback
  Pages: 176

William E. May is emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. He taught there from 1991-2008, after teaching moral theology at The Catholic University of America from 1971-1990. He is the author of many books, among them Marriage: The Rock on Which the Family Is Built and Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life. He currently serves as Senior Fellow for the Culture of Life Foundation. He and his wife Patricia have been married for 51 years and have been blessed with seven children and fifteen grandchildren.