Syllabus: Christian Symbolism of The Body

In the Theology of the Body, there are the three words of Jesus, the three original experiences, the three types of shame, the threefold concupiscence, and the three masters of suspicion. In this essay, I want to discuss yet another triptych -a triptych of questions -that is at the very heart of the Theology of the Body. These are the three questions of our age that form the back drop of that great work.

Dialog, 2018

This article is a programmatic proposal for providing a theological and existential (experiential and practical) framework for addressing the problem of the body in Christianity, specifically by examining the body against its eschatological horizon. It outlines the character of the problem, specifies an eschatological approach for addressing it, and begins to unfold a number of topics regarding embodiment that have new salience when apprehended in eschatological terms. It concludes by providing a preliminary agenda for carrying such a project forward.

2018

This article is a programmatic proposal for providing a theological and existential (experiential and practical) framework for addressing the problem of the body in Christianity, specifically by examining the body against its eschatological horizon.

Letters to a Young Theologian, ed. Henco van der Westhuizen, Fortress Press, 2022

If you are thinking of studying Christian theology, I would recommend you start by ignoring what every theologian has written and addressing Christ’s question directly—“Who do you say that I am?” The hermeneutic question par excellence. In short, before you take up any of the great summae theologiae (and the best, I submit, are still those of Aquinas and the subtle Celts, Duns Scotus, and Scotus Eriugena), consider closely the stories of how God came on earth to cure the sick in body and soul.

Religion is the marriage of mind and body. Both the mind and the body can have contrasting purposes. The mind can be used to explore virtue or engage vice. The body can be an instrument of faith that reflects God's love, or as a flawed participant in sin. I would also agree that philosophy is the marriage of the mind and body. My aim of this paper is to discuss the role of the body in the construction of religious practice, by first separating the differences between the religious body and the philosophical body. The difference in the teachings is that philosophy shapes the mind, giving it rules of virtuous ideas to guide the body, whereas religion gives rules for the body to practice to live virtuously in mind. Because of the diverse ideologies under the umbrellas of religion and philosophy, I will be limiting philosophies to Hellenistic culture and religion to those with that share in the father Abraham. These philosophies typically separate the body and soul into parts whereas in the religions of Abraham, the body, soul and spirit are regarded as one. I argue the body plays a crucial role in the construction of religious practice because the body acts as a microcosm in the macrocosm of society insofar as the body shapes religious practices; these religious practices establish cultural patterns.

2024

The resurrection of the dead is one of the most important dogmatic doctrines as expounded by Apostle Paul. He explained that Christians that die will resurrect with a spiritual body similar to Christ's type of body when he resurrected. However, Christ resurrection body had some physical features and Paul did not explain how the physical features of Christ resurrection body can be connected to other believers that will resurrect. There are many ancient cultures that teach that the physical body needed to be preserved so that it can be qualified for resurrection without which there won't be the resurrection of the body. Paul on the other hand seemed to ignore these beliefs in favour of the view that resurrection body is strictly spiritual. This research is a comparative study that sheds light on the debate regarding the nature of the resurrection body according to The New Testament teaching in comparison with ancient cultures especially those of the Semitic Peoples and other Africans like the Egyptians and the Yorubas. The purpose of this research is to point to the view that Jesus' resurrection body had physical features yet downplayed and deemphasized by Paul. These researchers hope to inspire a study into the nature of the resurrection body.

The vision that people had about the human body has evolved over time. Rather, it has continuously changed, because "evolution" meant not every time, at every moment of a changing of the paradigm, an increasingly clarification, a more sharp image that cultures have developed in relation to the human body. Most radically different conception of the role, significance and symbolism of the human body were recorded-in the European space-between Roman and Greek antiquity and the debuts of Christian era. Worshiped in Antiquity and mortified by Christians the human body was the battlefield where were fought the fiercest ideological battles of the first millennium AD. And the fight-in a deaf form-continues... Radical difference between the way the human body it was and is still regarded were recorded and longer found today across and beyond the dividing line that separates the western world from Orient. If we stand-symbolically speaking-midway between the two worlds we see that, by contrast with the sombre, visceral vision of the body that it was building in the Western world, due in part to an iconography that emphasized (especially in the Gothic sphere) suffering, martyrdom, ascesis, emaciation and death, the Far Eastern world inherited and was cultivating by tradition the concept of a luminous body built in perfect harmony with the universe. The disciplining of the body in Far Eastern cultures known in the Hindu space as tapas – ardour, even though it has some similarities with Western ascesis, is oriented, by contrast with the former, towards the superior tuning of the body's energy strings, towards the idea of obtaining resonance with the universe's ethereal planes, and by no means towards the maceration of the 'flesh' as sole solution for obtaining spiritual volatility. The Yoga and Zen disciplines approach the body from a perspective diametrically opposed to the European one; while Western ascesis is 'flagellating' at the bodily level and glorifying in the sphere of man's spiritual 1 1 Sergiu Anghel graduated with a degree in choreography in Cluj and Bucharest, having previously obtained a degree in letters at the University of Bucharest, with a major in Romanian and a minor in French. His PhD thesis was entitled 'Archetype Dance in 2002'. He is a member in full standing of CIDD-Unesco and of ITI-Bucharest. He has printed two specialty books and has authored over 20 TV film shows, having written the scripts and dramatic texts of those works. He has been made an Officer of the Order for Education ([email protected])

A brief introduction of John Paul II's catecheses on human love in the divine plan, for pastors and theology students