‘Our bodies, our selves?’ The body as source in feminist theology

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Barter Moulaison

AbstractThis article is, in part, an effort to come to terms with the ubiquitous celebration of embodiment in feminist discourse, and particularly within feminist theology. It will begin with a brief introduction to some of the key concepts in feminist theology and its use of the body, beginning with the body theologies of those who might now be called ‘second-wave’ theologians – Carter Heyward and Beverly Harrison. From here, I will consider postmodern feminist challenges to the reified and essentialised body as I examine what I call the subversive body in third-wave or postmodern feminism, both secular and theological. Finally, I shall move from these to an alternative construal of the importance of the body through the consideration of Christian bodily practices. Such an alternative will allow me to reflect upon what it is to become a specifically Christian body through church practices. I shall then endeavour to return to the critical concerns raised by feminism about the subjugation of women's bodies in the church as I consider the resources that might be available within the tradition itself for critical and emancipatory practices toward women and other strangers within the Body of Christ.

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Marlon Butarbutar ◽  
Sri Wahyuni Kusradi

Gereja hadir dalam dunia ini sebenarnya adalah untuk memuji dan memuliakan Tuhan. Oleh sebab itu, maka gereja mempunyai tugas untuk menjadikan semua bangsa sebagai murid Tuhan Yesus (Mat. 28: 18-20). Dimana yang dipakai Tuhan sebagai alat dalam melakukan dan melaksanakan akan kehendak-Nya adalah melalui gereja. Baik gereja sebagai tubuh Kristus yang di dalam Perjanjian Baru adalah umat, orang-orang yang dipanggil oleh Tuhan untuk keluar dari kegelapan dan masuk dalam terang-Nya untuk menjadi saksi Kristus maupun gereja dalam bentuk fisik, maksudnya adalah gereja sebagai gedung atau tempat yang dipakai orang-orang percaya untuk bersekutu dalam memuji dan memuliakan Tuhan. Melihat hal tersebut maka, titik utama gereja ada dan hadir adalah hanya untuk kemuliaan Tuhan. Salah satu ketentuan kewajiban jemaat yang ada dalam gereja adalah ”setiap jemaat, harus membayar persembahan bulanan setiap bulan kepada gereja”. Apabila tidak dilunasi, konsekuensinya adalah apabila ada kejadian dalam jemaat tersebut, seperti: baptisan, pemberkatan nikah. Itu semuanya tidak akan terlaksana, sebelum kewajiban tersebut terlunasi. Jadi, ketentuan ini bukan hanya mengikat jemaat untuk datang bersekutu atau beribadah dan membuat jemaat terikat pada gereja tersebut dan tidak mudah untuk pindah gereja, melainkan dalam tindakannya sudah ada sikap memaksa jemaat untuk membayar kewajiban kepada gereja. Berdasarkan hal di atas terlihat jelas bahwa jemaat memberi kepada gereja bukan dengan ketulusan dan sukacita. Tetapi memberi dengan keterpaksaan dan adanya sanksi atau konsekuensi bagi jemaat yang tidak memberikan persembahan bulanan terhadap gereja. Ini sangat mendorong penulis untuk meneliti sehingga menjadi suatu pertimbangan bagi gereja yang memberi kewajiban jemaat membayar iuran kepada gereja.     The church present in this world is actually to praise and glorify God. Therefore, the church has a duty to make all nations disciples of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 28: 18-20). Where God uses as a tool in doing and carrying out His will is through the church. Both the church as the body of Christ in the New Testament are people, people who are called by God to come out of the darkness and enter into His light to be witnesses of Christ and the church in physical form, meaning the church as a building or place used by people believers to fellowship in praising and glorifying God. Seeing this, the main point of the church being and present is only for the glory of God. One of the provisions of the congregation's obligations in the church is "every church, must pay monthly offerings every month to the church". If not paid, the consequence is if there is an incident in the church, such as: baptism, marriage blessing. That all will not be realized, before the obligation is paid. So, this provision does not only bind the congregation to come to fellowship or worship and make the congregation bound to the church and it is not easy to move the church, but in its action there is already an attitude of forcing the congregation to pay obligations to the church. Based on the above it is clear that the congregation gave to the church not with sincerity and joy. But giving with force and the existence of sanctions or consequences for congregations who do not provide monthly offerings to the church. This strongly encourages the writer to examine so that it becomes a consideration for the church which gives the congregation an obligation to pay contributions to the church.


Augustinus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Paola Marone ◽  

The modern scholars have studied the maternity of the Church independently from the anti-Donatist literature. But a careful study of the anti-Donatist documents reveals many interesting elements. According to Optatus and Augustine the notion of mother was abscribed to all believers, because the body of Christ was formed of all those the Church bore as children through the baptism. According to both African bishops also the donatists gave a valid baptism, but only Augustine demonstrated how the salvation could be found outside of the viscera Ecclesiae. Then this article deals with the image of the Ecclesia mater as illustrated in the Adversus Donatistas of Optatus published in answer to the donatist bishop Parmenianus and in all that Augustine penned against the schismatics (Tractatus, Sermones, Epistulae). By doing so, it presents a picture of the African theology of the fourth century.


Ecclesiology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74
Author(s):  
Kenneth Wilson

Does Methodism want a distinctive ecclesiology? British Methodism assumes its ecclesiology from the Church of England which explains its lack of ecclesiological thinking, its genuine desire for reunification, and indeed its focus on ecclesia in actu. But there can be no ecclesia in actu apart from ecclesia per se. Being and doing are one in God. The Church, grounded in the dynamic being of God in Trinity, celebrates in the action of the Eucharist the wholeness of God’s presence with his world. Proleptically the Church includes the whole of creation and all people. Hence, when as the Body of Christ we pray the Our Father with our Lord, we pray on behalf of all, not just for ourselves. But what then do we mean by apostolicity? Perhaps in Methodism we would be well occupied exploring more keenly with the Roman Catholic Church what we each mean by being a society within the church. Outler may have been right when he opined that Methodism needed a Catholic Church within which to be church.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Sarwono Sarwono

The gift of speaking in tongues is a message to the body of Christ which is given in tongues and is not understood by the user. Therefore, it must be followed by an interpretation by the language understood by the congregation. The gift of tongues is usually news of a prophecy for the Lord's church and must be followed by an interpretation. If the gift of tongues is not followed by an interpretation, it cannot build up the church. Therefore, the author will discuss the apostle Paul's perspective on tongues based on 1 Corinthians 14.


Augustinus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-369
Author(s):  
Enrique A. Eguiarte ◽  

The first part of this article, presents a bibliographic review of the works that in the last hundred years have addressed in a direct and central way Augustine’s Contra Faustum, making a more extensive description of the most important of them. Later the ecclesiological ideas of Book XII of Augustine’s Contra Faustum are approached, to discuss, Saint Augustine’s exegetical justification to make an spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament. Subsequently, the central ecclesiological figure of Book XII of Augustine’s Contra Faustum is addressed, namely, Noah’s ark, highlighting the symbolic meaning of the pure and impure animals, of the square and imperishable timbers with which the ark was built, of the ark’s side door and its relationship with the side of Christ, of the three levels of Noah’s ark and its ecclesial interpretation, of the greasy glue that joined the timbers as a symbol of unity and peace within the Church. The importance of the expression familia Christi as a name for the Church is highlighted, making an exposition of other augustinan works in which this expression is used. The theme of the Church as the body of Christ and the prosopological exegesis in Augustine’s Book XII of Contra Faustum is also addressed, as well as Saint Augustine’s interpretation of some characters of the Old Testament as figures of the Chruch in book XII of Contra Faustum. The article addresses indirectly to other contemporary Works of Contra Faustum, such as De Baptismo, Ad catholicos fratres and some sermons and enarrationes in Psalmos.


Augustinus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-448
Author(s):  
Diana Stanciu ◽  

How to characterize the scriptural exegesis that Augustine of Hippo develops in the Sermons on Scripture? The interpretations of the pericope of the act of faith of the centurion (Matth. 8:5-13) allow, by comparison, to provide elements of answer to this question. Only two continuous commentaries of it are preserved in the works of Augustine: the Sermon 62 (Carthage, 399) and the Sermon Morin 6 (409). It is, however, the subject of some sixty mentions, covering all genres (letters, exegetical treatises, polemics) and almost all chronological and polemical contexts (Manicheism, Donatism, Pelagianism). With this pericope, Augustine reminds both the Manicheans that Scripture must be received with faith, and the Donatists that members of the Church come from the east and the west. The accents are very different in the two sermons: the clearly theological perspective in the Sermo Morin 6 is colored in the Sermo 62 of a discrete and complex rhetorical use which aims to prepare the exhortation not to go to the banquets of the idols that form the second part of this sermon. Augustine’s homiletic exegesis enters into full consonance with the double inscription of the sermon in its liturgical and historical contexts: the first involves developing the faith of the faithful to unify the Body of Christ and the second to lead them to put into practice the requirements of this faith in the concrete circumstances of their lives. The themes of homiletic exegesis then con- tribute to making the sermon one of the mediations of grace in the work in the liturgy.


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