A Christian Ontology of the Flesh: Word, Symbol, Performance

Maurice Merleau-Ponty responded to the loss of the body in the wake of Western philosophy after Rene Descartes by constructing a phenomenology of perception and an ontology of the flesh. His voice, although decidedly removed from the religious, is constantly brought into theological debate whether it be Judith Butler’s reading of Merleau-Ponty’s early lectures on Malebranche’s sensuous theology, or a reading of his phenomenology for theologies of embodiment by contemporary philosophers of religion. Within Christian theology, the body has experienced its own loss, or so contemporary critics of the Christian flesh suggest when they cast it as that which is either negated or riddled with dualism. In this line of critique, Paul and Augustine become figureheads for the loss of the Christian body. A new reading of Paul, Augustine and others at the hand of recent scholarship may, however, provide a different angle from which to approach the problem of the flesh. By defining the self as one who is informed by the senses, and thereby relationally ordered to created other and divine, perception becomes a new mode of approaching the Christian body. Here the focus is less on the absence of the body than the absence of a theological grammar of perception. Reading perception in relation to the life, death and resurrection of Christ, the Spirit’s union of the self to Christ and of God’s grounding persons in the life of the Trinity, sets the stage for a uniquely embodied expression of divine presence. Here an embodied theology advances the simultaneous holding of form and content, and of the embodied expression of the divine through word, symbol and performance. A new grammar of perception arises, in this instance, which places the body central to the Christian story and which refuses any binary, dualism or negation

Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology

The theological role of African women and men in sustainable development and environmental justice strongly emerges in this book. Picking up the theme and metaphor of the fifth pan-African conference of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (hereafter ‘Circle’), ‘Mother Earth and Mother Africa’, this book titled Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology presents original and innovative research by scholarly members and friends of the Circle. The main contribution of the volume is its multi- and trans-disciplinary exploration and reimagining of human relationships to Earth from an African ecofeminist and ecowomanist theological perspective. It engages in critical conversations of re-interpreting and re-imagining African cultural, religious, theological, and philosophical perspectives on gender and the Earth. The aim is to construct Earth-friendly relationships in the face of the growing global environmental crisis. Scholarly voices of African women and men from fields such as Theology, Environmental Law and Policy, Tourism, Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, and Economics are reflected in this book, which consists of three parts: Creation, the Trinity, and Mother Africa; Caring for Mother Africa; and Mother Africa and her daughters’ (in)fertility. Each of the eleven chapters in the volume presents the metaphor of Mother Earth, Mother Africa, and gender relations, with the aim to explore life-affirming, life-enhancing human relationships to Earth from the author’s particular area of specialisation and context

Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology

The theological role of African women and men in sustainable development and environmental justice strongly emerges in this book. Picking up the theme and metaphor of the fifth pan-African conference of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (hereafter ‘Circle’), ‘Mother Earth and Mother Africa’, this book titled Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology presents original and innovative research by scholarly members and friends of the Circle. The main contribution of the volume is its multi- and trans-disciplinary exploration and reimagining of human relationships to Earth from an African ecofeminist and ecowomanist theological perspective. It engages in critical conversations of re-interpreting and re-imagining African cultural, religious, theological, and philosophical perspectives on gender and the Earth. The aim is to construct Earth-friendly relationships in the face of the growing global environmental crisis. Scholarly voices of African women and men from fields such as Theology, Environmental Law and Policy, Tourism, Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, and Economics are reflected in this book, which consists of three parts: Creation, the Trinity, and Mother Africa; Caring for Mother Africa; and Mother Africa and her daughters’ (in)fertility. Each of the eleven chapters in the volume presents the metaphor of Mother Earth, Mother Africa, and gender relations, with the aim to explore life-affirming, life-enhancing human relationships to Earth from the author’s particular area of specialisation and context

Bodies, theology and Dante’s divine comedy : engaging Dante and Aïda Muluneh

Placing the words Comedy and Africa in the same sentence, is like laying claim to two expansive and complex entities which do not immediately bear relation to another and yet, there is ample opportunity for engagement. The article begins by showing how a young South African’s reading of the Divine Comedy through the lens of her own preoccupation with the body and its theo-performative demeanour can bring fresh perspectives to the fore. A primary instance of the intersection between the body, God and theological performance is the Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh’s interpretation of Inferno, canto xx. Muluneh’s performative expression transforms the scope and meaning of tears in the Comedy by bringing to bear her own particularity. Here, tears become central in unveiling the truth that the Comedy speaks. The article explores the significant role that gestures have in giving form to the Divine Comedy. As the logic of relationality, love forms the spine of this article while drawing together the themes of creation and incarnation. The article ends by suggesting that if one has a proper understanding of the relationship between humans and the created order, one might find a theology from below latent in the Comedy.http://ojs.reformedjournals.co.za/index.php/stjam2021Philosoph