Do You Not Know that Your Bodies are Members of Christ?: Towards a Christian Body Politics and the Cultural Practice of Cosmetic Surgery
The contemporary rise in the West of cosmetic surgery as a cultural practice expresses the story of the late modern self as autonomous renovator, and the body as disenchanted raw material and individual possession. Technological biomedicine offers itself as the institution ready to assist this refle...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
[2017]
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| In: |
Studies in Christian ethics
Year: 2017, Volume: 30, Issue: 4, Pages: 407-428 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBE Anthropology NCH Medical ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
cosmetic surgery
B Christians B Sacramentals B Bioethics B footwashing B Self B Body B PLASTIC surgery B THEORY of self-knowledge |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The contemporary rise in the West of cosmetic surgery as a cultural practice expresses the story of the late modern self as autonomous renovator, and the body as disenchanted raw material and individual possession. Technological biomedicine offers itself as the institution ready to assist this reflexive self in aligning the body to an individuals inner identity. A Christian body politics, however, challenges this narrative of the human person, by claiming that gift and dependence more aptly represent human being than possession and autonomy. The rite of footwashing, particularly as articulated by Jean Vanier and practised in the communities of LArche, represents a sacramental practice which forms Christians in a different narrative of the body and being human. Footwashing reminds and trains members of the Body in a non-violent gentleness towards all bodies, and a recognition of humans as creatures of a good God rather than mere possessors of inert flesh. |
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| ISSN: | 0953-9468 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0953946816680137 |