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Theresa
Sanders,
Body and
Belief: Why the body of Jesus cannot heal
Philosophical
and Cultural Studies in Religion
This
work in postmodern Catholic theology explores the meaning of
brokenness: the broken bodies of Jesus and of the saints. The wounds
of Jesus have been the focal point for innumerable devotions
throughout the history of Catholic piety; there has, however, been
very little attempt to read those wounds from a contemporary
theological/philosophical perspective. This book is such an attempt,
focusing not only on the broken and resurrected body of Jesus, but
also on the martyred bodies of the saints, drawing on sources
ranging from Saint Augustine and medieval mystic Angela of Foligno
to deconstructionists Jacques Derrida and Mark C. Taylor. Its
thesis, as fully developed in the final chapter, is that the holes
in Jesus’ body articulate a longing for God that is humans’ deepest
knowledge of God, a longing that is not a lack that could ever be
filled, but is grace itself. In our present life it is the grace
that impels us outwards towards others in love, and in the
resurrected life it is the very space that love requires in order to
be itself.
Contents
Preface
Chapter
1. Introduction
Chapter
2. The Pierced Body of Jesus
Chapter
3. The Pierced Heart of Jesus
Chapter
4. The Pierced Body of the Saint
Chapter
5. The Dead Body of the Saint
Chapter
6. The Resurrection of the Body
Index
Reviews
“Body and Belief
is a small book taking a big step towards theodicy: in asking us to
ask God where he was (And where were we?) during this century’s
worst human crimes. Sanders offers us an intellectual meditation on
how we should think of those crimes in full view of the continuing
Catholic church reassessment of its sacraments and doctrine. She
guides us through a host of heavy thinkers like Rahner, Scarry,
Derrida, Marion, Wyschogrod, Winquist, and Girard. The result is a
clear, well-written book that invites itself into introductory
college courses in religious thought and theology. Professor Sanders
asks all the right questions. The answers might be unsettling. Read
at your own risk. But read.”
— T. D. Idinopulos
“This is a remarkably
readable book on what makes Christianity an earthy religion.
Professor Sanders explores the realms of the bodiliness of believing
in dialogue with postmodern writers. She provides an authentic
alternative to the ethereally thin spiritualities all too evident in
popular writing. She offers us a new way of thinking deeply about
what it means to be and be
in the body of Christ.”
—
Terrence W. Tilley
“No
theologian faces the body as squarely as Theresa Sanders. After
noting that the body of Jesus still has holes in almost all accounts
of the Resurrection, she passes an unflinching gaze over a
photograph of corpses from a massacre in Bosnia, Christian saints
eating skin that fell from lepers, the rhythm of hips in
intercourse, and the connection of syphilis with the founding of
ghettoes for Jews, among many other things. The result is a theology
of desire rather than fulfillment, of mystery and faith rather than
certainty and dogma. Retelling the story of creation, loss, and
redemption, she shows how creation and redemption express their
power in loss, in disease, even through death and decomposition. She
provides new ways to understand why relics and ascetic practices
have such power in Catholic spiritual life. Building beyond
psychology and philosophy with the clarity of spiritual practice,
Sanders offers the founding insight for a systematic theology that
gives Flesh and Word equal prestige and equal power.”
— Peter
Gardella
Author
Theresa Sanders (PhD, Syracuse University) is on the
faculty of the Department of Theology at Georgetown University
where she teaches courses in Christian thought. Her research
interest is the intersection of the postmodern and Catholicism. She
serves on the Editorial Board of the
Journal for Cultural and
Religious Theory, the Editorial Advisory Board for the
Routledge Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, and is the author of
Celluloid Saints: Images of Sanctity in Film.
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