Christopher West, left, and Mike Mangione are leading a multimedia event in Davenport in November.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — Internationally known Theology of the Body speaker/author Christopher West and award-winning musician Mike Mangione will lead a multimedia event, Made for More: Visions of the Promised Land, Nov. 12 at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Davenport. The 2 and a half hour program begins at 7 p.m. in the church.
The duo will weave together live music, video clips and sacred art for an evening of beauty and reflection on the meaning of life, love and human destiny through the lens of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body writings.
“An understanding of JPII’s (St. John Paul II) work can provide us with ways to have conversations with others, both young and old, regarding how to live our lives with dignity and as God intended,” said parishioner Kaye Meyers, a member of the event’s planning team.
Made for More is the Theology of the Body Institute’s flagship event. West serves as its president, Mangione as its creative director. West has “devoted his life’s work to making the Theology of the Body accessible for everyone,” said Our Lady of Victory parishioner Marie Ripslinger-Atwater. The lay volunteer read one of his books about 20 years ago, and it inspired her to become a Natural Family Planning instructor. She looks forward to meeting him in person, and for her teenage and adult daughters to hear his message.
Interest in West’s work grew among parishioners last year when Our Lady of Victory offered a study on his book, “An Introduction to Theology of the Body, Discovering God’s Master Plan for Your Life.” When the study concluded, “several participants were looking to do something more with the knowledge they had gained,” said Jennifer Wemhoff, the parish’s adult faith formation coordinator. After a successful second study session, “we made an inquiry to the Theology of the Body Institute about the various missions they offer, and decided to host the Made for More mission,” she said.
To get the word out about the event, West appeared on Catholic Messenger Conversations, the podcast of The Catholic Messenger. In addition to giving an introduction to Theology of the Body and a preview of the coming event in Davenport, the author discussed his newest book, “The Truth and the Lie: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of AI,” which will be released Oct. 9.
In the book’s prologue, West explores the Christian belief that God made humans “in his own image” (Gen 1:26-27) before explaining the book’s premise – “the Truth” and “the Lie.”
“Your creation as an embodied male or female person is fundamentally good; in fact it’s the highest good in the visible world,” writes West. “That is the Truth. In this fallen world, however, embodiment is also fraught with difficulties and sufferings from which we, very understandably and appropriately, desire liberation and redemption. And this is precisely where and why we become vulnerable to the Lie. Preying on our sufferings, the Lie wants us to blame our bodies for them. The Lie declares — in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways — that embodiment itself is the problem, that it is not good to be created male and female. It holds out the utopian promise that we could eliminate our sufferings if we could just overcome the ‘oppression’ of the flesh. The Truth, of course, is very interested in relieving suffering, but not at the expense of our humanity.”
The podcast episode will air on St. Ambrose University’s KALA Radio (88.5 FM) and will be posted on podcast streaming services soon.
Ripslinger-Atwater believes the Made for More event will have something for everyone. She hopes parents will leave the presentation feeling more equipped to have conversations with their children about sexuality, and that young people will hear a message of hope and truth that speaks to the deepest desires of their hearts. “I hope people will realize that this is the tip of the iceberg of the treasure trove of teaching from the Catholic Church on God’s plan for human love and sexuality.”
Admission is $30; space is limited. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to https://aftontickets.com/M4MDavenport.
(Dan Russo, The Catholic Messenger editor, contributed to this article.)
