[UPDATE, 8/25/10: If you are looking for my master's thesis, a critique of Christopher West's presentation of the theology of the body, it is now available as a free download from Catholic News Agency. See CNA's news story, or download the thesis directly as a PDF file.]
A staff member of the Catholic Youth Ministry office of the Archdiocese of Perth, Western Australia, who had requested a copy of my master's thesis, writes:
Dear Dawn,For more information about my master's thesis, including the text of my thesis defense, scroll down or click here.
Thank you so very much for sending me your work ["Towards a 'Climate of Chastity': Bringing Catechesis on the Theology of the Body into the Hermeneutic of Continuity"]. I've read it twice over this last weekend. This is fantastic stuff.
You write very well and have clarified a number of things that I was concerned about when I began reading Christopher West's work about five years ago.
I’ve since read both Love and Responsibility and the Waldstein translation of the Wednesday audience catecheses and found a certain incongruence with West's articulation and what our late, Great Pope was saying but, I was unable to articulate it in such fashion as you have here.
I am very thankful for what you have done as it has given me a language to aid me in forming the young people that I work with. This is greatly needed as we often use West’s DVD and audio resources here in our catechesis, and I have been looking for a way to articulate to the perhaps lesser informed the different nuances that exist within the TOB.
Thanks again and God bless you in your work.
Ave Maria!
Tom Gourlay
