January 17, 2011

Theology of the Body

When it comes to human embodiment, some appear to see the body as determinative and closed by intrinsic limits, while others see it as creative and open to possibilities. 

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

4 comments:

JCF said...

Says the genderqueer: THANK YOU!

Closed said...

Much of the so-called theology of the body I've read looks a lot lot like scriptural or magisterial fundamentalism. It reads a singular meaning or function into bodies, something that any observer of bodies quickly realizes is untenable.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG said...

Yr welcome, JCF.

Christopher, my sentiments exactly. It is a kind of narrow "literal" reading of text and nature: as if there could only be one meaning; when in fact the multiple readings, meanings, and possibilities are so plainly evident -- if only from the fact that disagreement exists!

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG said...

Murdoch, I was thinking explicitly of John Paul II's work of that name, though it is only one instance of a general tendency to idealize and idolize, even while misreading and misrepresening, the body.