Theosis and Eros, Celibacy and Marriage | Interview with Dr. Adam G. Cooper | Catholic World Report
"The cross to me is everything," explains Dr. Adam G. Cooper in remarking on his two recent books, "It's the defining centre of God and human history."
Dr. Adam G. Cooper is a permanent fellow and senior lecturer in the theology of the body at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Durham (UK) and a licentiate and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from Pontifical Lateran University (Rome). He has authored several books, including The Body in St Maximus the Confessor (2005) and Life in the Flesh (2008). His two most recent books were both published this year: Naturally Human, Supernaturally God: Deification in Pre-Conciliar Catholicism (Fortress Press) and Holy Eros: A Liturgical Theology of the Body (Angelico Press). His article, "Cardinal Kasper and the Church Fathers", was published by Catholic World Report this past June.
Dr. Cooper recently corresponded with Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, about his newest books and his research into salvation, liturgy, theosis, the meaning of the body, and the crucial relationship between celibacy and marriage.
CWR: At first glance, these two books might appear to be about two rather different topics: soteriology and liturgy. But would it be accurate to say that each, in its own way, focus on shared topics, including the nature of man, the purpose of existence, and the end (or End) to which each of us is oriented?
Dr. Cooper: Yes, that's a fair observation. Much of my writing has tended to revolve around theological anthropology in one shape or another. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it revolves around Christology, from which a good deal of my thinking about what it means to be human and bodily emerges.
CWR: Naturally Human, Supernaturally God is rather unique in that it takes a topic—deification—usually discussed from a biblical perspective or a patristic foundation, and examines it in the writings of three great twentieth-century Catholic theologians: Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P., Karl Rahner S.J., and Henri de Lubac S.J. How did you first become interested in the topic of deification? And how did you end up writing about Garrigou-Lagrange, Rahner, and de Lubac and their theological work about deification?
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