Paul J Griffiths

Christian Flesh

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Paul J. Griffiths is Warren Chair of Catholic Theology at Duke University and the author of The Practice of Catholic Theology (2016) and Decreation (2014).

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 176
• Erscheinungstermin: 25. September 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 10mm
• Gewicht: 268g
• ISBN-13: 9781503606746
• ISBN-10: 1503606740
• Artikelnr.: 50910149

Autorenporträt

Paul J. Griffiths is Warren Chair of Catholic Theology at Duke University and the author of The Practice of Catholic Theology (2016) and Decreation (2014).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1Flesh Devastated
chapter abstract
This chapter distinguishes body from flesh and shows the latter to be,
first, haptic, which is to say constituted and maintained as flesh by touch
in its many varieties; second, self-contiguous and bounded, separated in
fact and experience from other bodies of flesh, while also located in time
and space; third, a gift received from the caresses of others, without
which flesh can neither come to be as such, nor continue in being; and
fourth, fragile and mortal, located in a world in which fleshly pain is a
constant threat and a frequent companion, and in which death, the end of
flesh, is always close at hand.
2Flesh Transfigured
chapter abstract
This chapter shows what human flesh would be like were it not damaged, and
does so from a Christian point of view, by describing the flesh of Jesus
Christ during the period from his conception to his death on the cross
(natal flesh), from his resurrection to his ascension (resurrected flesh),
and from his ascension onwards (ascended flesh). As natal flesh, the book
argues, his flesh was exempt from the ordinary damage of pain and mortality
except as these served particular purposes. The chapter shows, in its
analysis of this and its engagement with counterviews, that human flesh's
ordinary subjection to these things isn't essential to it, and begins to
sketch what flesh would be like were it not so subject.
3Flesh Cleaved
chapter abstract
This chapter shows what it means for human flesh to cleave to-to be made
intimate with, incorporated into-the flesh of Christ through baptism.
Baptism is depicted as a matter of the flesh and as an act that newly
relates the flesh of the baptized to Christ's flesh. Paul's discussion of
these matters in the Corinthian correspondence is interpreted, with special
attention to what it means to say that the Christian's bodily members are,
analogically and participatorily, Christ's. Being intimate with one kind of
flesh-namely Christ's-means that some other kinds of fleshly intimacy are
ruled inappropriate; the scriptural language of fornication and idolatry is
presented and discussed as a way of clarifying this, and the chapter argues
that appropriate Christian fleshly conduct is better presented by way of
hagiography-writing the lives of those who exhibit it-than by way of
argument or codification.
4Clothes
chapter abstract
This chapter shows what it is to be clothed, and what functions the wearing
of clothes serve in human life. It shows the importance of nakedness in
baptism and argues that there is no distinctively or properly Christian
clothing: no clothes intrinsically proper to, or improper for, Christian
flesh. Local sartorial conventions, however, may be observed by Christians,
and should be unless they carry with them a signal that they are more than
conventional by being rooted in the order of being. If they carry that
signal-as locally gender-specific modes of dress, for example, often
do-then they can become both fornicatory and idolatrous. The chapter argues
that Christians have a radical freedom with respect to dress because of
their cleaving to the flesh of Christ.
5Food
chapter abstract
This chapter shows what it is to eat and drink and asks what is appropriate
in that sphere for Christian flesh. There are, for Christians, no forbidden
foods, and none required. All are on a par at least in that all eating is
intimate with slaughter (whether of plants or animals). The sole exception
is eucharistic eating, and this shows that all non-eucharistic eating ought
to be accompanied by lament as well as by delight. Fasting is analyzed,
depicted as a proper Christian response to this situation, and articulated
with both eschatology and eucharistic theology. Gluttony and other forms of
scandalous eating are treated, and the mistakes evident in them shown.
6Caresses
chapter abstract
This chapter analyzes the varieties of human fleshly exchange as these
appear to Christians. Fleshly contacts fall on a spectrum from the
life-giving caress to the life-taking wound. Fleshly wounding is
concupiscent: it seeks domination and control, and caresses of this kind
are inappropriate, it is argued, for Christian flesh, while celibacy and
virginity are depicted as characteristically Christian modes of responding
to the connection between copulation and death. But there are no caresses
whose form specifically forbids them to Christians, and this is argued with
respect to three examples: masturbation, cunnilingus, and sodomy. The
topics treated in this chapter are framed by and aimed at a depiction of
caressing the flesh of Jesus, with which the chapter concludes.