Love & Responsibility reflects the searching yet confident stance that has characterized John Paul II's papacy. He contends that science can tell us much about the relations between the sexes but that we can gain a full understanding only through study of the human person as a whole. Contrasting the "personalist" and "utilitarian" views of marriage and sexual life, he argues that divorce, artificial birth control, and pre-marital sex are incompatible with a truly personalist view of human fulfillment. Throughout the book, he appeals to ordinary human experience as well as his own pastoral experience. His conclusions coincide with the traditional teachings of the Church, but they are written to engage and appeal to all people of good will.