ABSTRACT
A characteristic theological vision informs John Paul II’s pontificate as a whole, a vision Karol Wojtyła developed already in the 1940s on the basis of his encounter with the writings of St John of the Cross. Although Wojtyła tends to be seen as a philosopher, four of the seven books he published before his election are theological. His magnum opus, written before his election but published as a cycle of Papal catecheses, is the great Theology of the Body (TOB), in which the many strands of his philosophical and theological thought come together. As a rule, Papal writings involve much collaboration with advisors and departments of the Curia so that one cannot automatically attribute them to the Pope personally. The case of John Paul II seems to be different although some of his writings bear the marks of collaboration more than others. Throughout his many documents one can see the stamp of a single coherent vision that Wojtyła articulated in its outlines already in his 1948 doctoral dissertation on St John of the Cross. It is a vision of Christian life as a spousal gift of self of God to the human person and an answering spousal gift of the person to God, both rooted in the communion of persons in the Trinity. Following St John of the Cross, John Paul II pays particular attention to the experience of faith, to the manner in which faith permeates and changes the lived experience of personal subjectivity.
