Theology of the Body Explained


Book Description

Christopher West makes John Paul II's theology of the body available for the first time to people at all levels within the Christian community. Love, sexuality, and human flourishing are inseparable. Those who doubted this will find West's book a transforming experience, and those who have been wounded will find liberation and peace. A wonderful education on the meaning of being human. Christopher West teaches the theology of the body and sexual ethics at St John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. He is also visiting faculty member of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia.




Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ


Book Description

Analysis of how a religious festival dramatized the subaltern status of indigenous converts and how these converts used this to construct positive colonial identities.




Esoteric Christianity Made Simple


Book Description

Esoteric Christianity Made Simple is a thought-provoking, inspiring look at the Christian Bible, presenting ideas and context that are not what typical Christians usually hear or read. Those who are open-minded will find this book to be entirely different from their concept of Christianity, but any reader can understand and appreciate the explanations and insights. Esoteric Christianity Made Simple challenges long-held beliefs about topics from the Creation of Man to the Last Supper, focusing on the deeper, metaphorical meanings of the parables and stories in the Bible. Whether or not you consider yourself to be religious or a Christian, this compelling examination of what the Bible is really saying can awaken any reader to a new spiritual reality.




Christ's Body


Book Description

Through her fascinating series of readings of texts such as The Book of Margery Kempe, Beckwith develops a materialist analysis of religious texts showing the vital cultural work they do.




What Did Jesus Look Like?


Book Description

Jesus Christ is arguably the most famous man who ever lived. His image adorns countless churches, icons, and paintings. He is the subject of millions of statues, sculptures, devotional objects and works of art. Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus: usually as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes. But what did Jesus really look like? Is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? This question continues to fascinate. Leading Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor surveys the historical evidence, and the prevalent image of Jesus in art and culture, to suggest an entirely different vision of this most famous of men. He may even have had short hair.




The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Discourse


Book Description

Early Christian apocryphal and conical documents present us with grotesque images of the human body, often combining the playful and humorous with the repulsive, and fearful. First to third century Christian literature was shaped by the discourse around and imagery of the human body. This study analyses how the iconography of bodily cruelty and visceral morality was produced and refined from the very start of Christian history. The sources range across Greek comedy, Roman and Jewish demonology, and metamorphosis traditions. The study reveals how these images originated, were adopted, and were shaped to the service of a doctrinally and psychologically persuasive Christian message.










Spirit, Soul, and Body


Book Description

Have you ever asked yourself what changed when you were "born again?" You look in the mirror and see the same reflection - your body hasn't changed. You find yourself acting the same and yielding to those same old temptations - that didn't seem to change either. So you wonder, Has anything really changed? The correct...




A Body of Divinity


Book Description