Members of His Body

Author(s):  
Will Stockton

Through readings of Shakespeare and Paul, Members of His Body protests the Christian defense of marital monogamy. If the Paul who authors 1 Corinthians would prefer that unmarried believers remain single, the pseudonymous Paul of the epistle to the Ephesians argues that marriage affords the couple membership in the body of Christ. For neither Paul is plural marriage the antithesis of Christian marriage. For the Paul of Ephesians, plural marriage is rather the telos of Christian community. Building on scholarship regarding early modern sexualities, as well as on political-theological conversations about Pauline universalism, Members of His Body argues that marriage functions in The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale as a contested vehicle of Christian embodiment. Shakespeare’s plays query the extent to which man and wife become “one flesh” through marriage, and the extent to which they share that fleshly identity with other Christians. These plays explore the racial, religious, and gender criteria for marital membership in the body of Christ. Finally, they suggest that marital jealousy and paranoia about adultery result in part from a Christian theology of shared embodiment. In the wake of recent arguments that expanding marriage rights to gay people will open the door to the cultural acceptance and legalization of plural marriage, Shakespeare’s plays remind us that much Christian theology already looks forward to this end.

Author(s):  
Will Stockton

The final chapter queries how the resurrection of Hermione from stone answers to Leontes’ paranoia about his wife’s infidelity. Sourcing the play’s creaturely imaginaries to Genesis 1 and 2, as well as to Paul of Tarsus’s typological conjunction of Christ and Adam in 1 Corinthians, I argue that Leontes operates on the premise that the human flesh to which he has joined himself in marriage is constitutively adulterated. Turning the resurrection scene, this chapter further argues that Leontes’ reaction recalls the Corinthian controversy over eating meat sacrificed to idols, and thereby signals that his anxieties over the purity of his wife’s flesh have not abated. Whereas numerous recent readings of The Winter’s Tale concern themselves with the faith that Paulina makes a requirement of Hermione’s resurrection, this chapter finally contends that Shakespeare’s romance is similarly ambiguous about faith’s connection to redemption. Instead of taking a Protestant, Catholic, or even secular approach to faith, Shakespeare’s play stages a series of redemptive possibilities – among them the possibility that marriage alone, not faith at all, offers the unbeliever membership in the body of Christ.


Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
Janelle Peters

Abstract This article reads the veiling instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:1–16 through Paul’s appeal to creation. The letter positions both genders in God, and it follows contemporary Jewish literature in assigning angels to creation and gender interdependence. Ascetic, unmarried, and married persons found inclusion in this vision of the body of Christ.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-304

Summary <p content-type="flush left">Wondrously Wounded sets out to reconfigure our theological idea of what disability is. It moves away, not only from charity or medical models, but also from some current thinking in disability theology (that those labelled disabled reveal humanity’s true vulnerability) to a starting point of all life being a gift, so all capable of mediating God’s goodness. Brock grounds his argument in patristic ideas of a radical Christian human solidarity, and a convincing exegesis of 1 Corinthians 12, the body of Christ and spiritual gifts. The whole is brought to life by an account of Brock’s son, Adam, who is labelled disabled, but who under this analysis is perhaps the healthiest of us all. This is an important next step in the development of a convincing Christian theology of disability.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Etman

The Hogarth Shakespeare Project presents a way to view Shakespeare’s plays through a different lens. These books allow for a feminist reading of Shakespeare, looking at some of Shakespeare’s ill-treated female characters to construct a new idea of female characterization. Three of the plays adapted, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew, were adapted by female authors. By investigating how these plays are being adapted for a more contemporary audience, with modern conceptions of feminism and gender roles, we can gain insight as to how these concepts have changed since Shakespeare’s time. By looking at these modern adaptations, we can interrogate how modern audiences as a whole conceptualize and, potentially, idealize Shakespeare, as well as understanding the progression of treatment of women in contemporary culture since Shakespeare’s time. The novels addressed in this project are The Gap of Time by Jeannette Winterson, Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, and Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. The project concludes that, of the three, Vinegar Girl does the most effective job addressing the problematic aspects of its adapted play in a new way, distinguishing it from previous adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew. This project also investigates the role that adaptation theory plays in addressing Shakespeare adaptations, particularly the Hogarth Shakespeare Project.


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.


Author(s):  
Ross Kane

The period of late antiquity provides an example of how syncretism’s use has changed over recent decades as scholars increasingly probe the usefulness of categories like religion or syncretism when applying them to non-Western cultures. Recent scholarship like David Frankfurter’s indicates that the term “syncretism” can remain a useful designation in religious studies when used reflexively. The term’s history can be folded into its present usage, such that the power dynamics behind its negative usage can be turned around. Concluding and summarizing the book’s claims for Christian theology, I argue that some syncretisms can be seen as means of the body of Christ growing in history, which the Swahili language calls umwilisho, or body-making.


Horizons ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-45
Author(s):  
Krešimir Šimić

After the initial contextualization of the topic, by following Nancy's juxtaposition strategy, this article points to two senses of the body that, according to him, have defined the Western culture. The first one, logos (principle precedes the body and gives it meaning); the second, sarx (the meaning of the body comes from the body itself, so that the body comes out of itself, alienates itself, and deconstructs its own representative activities). Next, I give a more precise depiction of Nancy's deconstruction of the body through an analysis of Corpus because it is precisely with this work (in the chapter On the Soul, which is also the title of Aristotle's well-known treatise dealing first and foremost with the body, and in the chapter The Extension of the Soul) that Nancy most explicitly deconstructs hylomorphic somatology, which largely influenced the Christian theology of the body. Furthermore, I interpret Genesis 2:18–25 (in constant dialogue with Nancy) as a theological reaction on Nancy's deconstruction of the body. In other words, on the basis of biblical texts, the “mystery of the body” is depicted. Finally, the article ends with a comparison of Nancy's “inoperative community” (communauté désoeuvrée) and the Body of Christ (church).


1993 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Hendiiks ◽  
C. B. Ludik

Koinonia in the city: Relations in the larger urban congregations of the Reformed churches Koinonia is of vital importance for the church. It is not only a Biblical injunction, but also, sociologically speaking, a prerequisite for the preservation of faith in the Christian community. Therefore it is imperative that the church’s ministry encourages koinonia. This is especially true for the church in an urban context, where relational networks have been severely impaired. The traditional pattern of ministry of churches in the Reformed tradition, the shepherd-flock model, does not succeed in stimulating koinonia under these circumstances. Therefore, the choice is rather made for the body of Christ-model, with complementary koinonia-gwupings as theory of practice.


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