God's body: Jewish, Christian, and Pagan images of God
"Explores conceptions of the corporeality of God in antique Western theology, mysticism, and philosophy"--
| Main Author: | |
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| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Waco, Texas
Baylor University Press
[2019]
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| In: | Year: 2019 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Body
/ Idea of God
/ Classical antiquity
/ Judaism
/ Christianity
/ Paganism
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| IxTheo Classification: | BE Greco-Roman religions BH Judaism CA Christianity NBC Doctrine of God NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
God (Judaism)
History of doctrines
B God (Christianity) History of doctrines B God History of doctrines B Hellenism B God Corporeality History of doctrines B Anthropomorphism B God (Greek religion) B Paganism History |
| Online Access: |
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Verlag) Literaturverzeichnis |
| Summary: | "Explores conceptions of the corporeality of God in antique Western theology, mysticism, and philosophy"-- "God is unbounded. God became flesh. While these two assertions are equally viable parts of Western Christian religious heritage, they stand in tension with one another. Fearful of reducing God's majesty with shallow anthropomorphisms, philosophy and religion affirm that God, as an eternal being, stands wholly apart from creation. Yet the legacy of the incarnation complicates this view of the incorporeal divine, affirming a very different image of God in physical embodiment. While for many today the idea of an embodied God seems simplisticaeven pedestrianaChristoph Markschies reveals that in antiquity, the educated and uneducated alike subscribed to this very idea. More surprisingly, the idea that God had a body was held by both polytheists and monotheists. Platonic misgivings about divine corporeality entered the church early on, but it was only with the advent of medieval scholasticism that the idea that God has a body became scandalous, an idea still lingering today. In God's Body Markschies traces the shape of the divine form in late antiquity. This exploration follows the development of ideas of God's corporeality in Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions. In antiquity, gods were often like humans, which proved to be important for philosophical reflection and for worship. Markschies considers how a cultic environment nurtured, and transformed, Jewish and Christian descriptions of the divine, as well as how philosophical debates over the connection of body and soul in humanity provided a conceptual framework for imagining God. Markschies probes the connections between this lively culture of religious practice and philosophical speculation and the christological formulations of the church to discover how the dichotomy of an incarnate God and a fleshless God came to be. By studying the religious and cultural past, Markschies reveals a Jewish and Christian heritage alien to modern sensibilities, as well as a God who is less alien to the human experience than much of Western thought has imagined. Since the almighty God who made all creation has also lived in that creation, the biblical idea of humankind as image of God should be taken seriously and not restricted to the conceptual world but rather applied to the whole person." |
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| Item Description: | Aus dem Deutschen übersetzt Literaturverzeichnis |
| ISBN: | 1481311689 |