Honoring the Body

Meditations on a Christian Practice

Stephanie Paulsell

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781506454894
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506454900
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Learn to celebrate your body by attending to daily spiritual practices

In Honoring the Body, Stephanie Paulsell speaks to those who have ever wondered how to celebrate the body's pleasures and protect the body's vulnerabilities in a world that seems confused about both. What we need, she shows, are practices that honor the body.

Paulsell invites readers to explore how we might honor the body in daily activities--bathing, clothing, eating, working, exercising, loving, and suffering--seeking wisdom from Scripture, history, and contemporary experience, in story and song and poetry.

She argues that the accumulated wisdom of religious traditions provides the resources for a rich practice of honoring the body. This practice will not be just an individual practice, however. It will be a shared, communal practice, one we engage in with others.

Honoring the Body is for those who want to honor their body and the bodies of others, who wish for a community that cherishes, attends to, celebrates, and soothes the body.

2

Index

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Accidental Autobiography, An (Harrison), 70, 163, 165

Ackerman, D., 35, 37, 105, 162, 165

adolescent body: clothing and 51–65

adornment of, 53–61

eating disorders and, 73–75, 135

homosexual, 5, 51, 134–37, 144

piercing and tattooing of, 56–60, 163

sexuality and, 2, 5, 11, 23–25, 37, 41, 103, 125–46, 166

and shared family meals, xix, 88–89

sleep needs of, 120–23

adornment. See clothing and adornment

aging body: young people and, 10, 36, 56, 69, 74, 129, 134, 136, 138

bathing and caring for, 1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 31–49, 53, 107, 113, 137

AIDS, 4, 16

Amis, M., 139, 166

apostle Paul, writings of, 15–16, 51, 104, 107, 127–28, 154–55

Artress, Lauren, 113–14, 165

baptism, 7, 34, 43–49, 51–53, 64, 137

as being clothed in God, 46, 49, 51

of Jesus, 45, 47

of new life, 43, 45

of St. Augustine, 45–46, 127

vulnerability and awareness of death in, 44, 46

Barber, Red, 105

Bass, Dorothy, 23, 117, 163, 165

bathing, vii, xiv, 1, 3, 5, 28, 31–49, 53, 137

as affirmation of life’s goodness, 41

art and ritual of, 35

and baptismal immersion, 43–44

and cleanliness equated with godliness, 39–43

commodification of, 35

of feet and hands of others, 36, 42

healing and, 37

of others, honoring God through, 40–42

pleasures and comforts of, 34–35, 37

as religious ritual, 27, 31, 39

self-respect and, 41

sexuality and, 5, 37

of sick and dying body, 38

as stimulus to creativity, 37

Beaudoin, T., 55–57, 163

Bendixen, Arthur, 149, 152, 167

Bernard of Clairvaux, 131–32

Bishop, E., 38, 162

bodies of others: bathing and caring for, 36, 40–42

clothing, 62

encountering Christ through, 8

touching, 10, 152–54

bodily vulnerability: shared, 11, 144

sense of human solidarity in, 11

to hunger and thirst, 71

sacred vulnerability and, 1–11

See also suffering body

body: gaining understanding of, 20, 133

integrity, relationality and, 13, 18–22, 97

of Jesus, 6–7, 30, 34

as reflection of God, 6, 42

as sacred gift, xiii, 3

as task, 3, 14, 30, 111–15

violated, xv

See also honoring the body

body appearance, 3, 10, 43, 112

adolescence and, 112

eating disorders and, 73–75

society’s manipulation on, 3

vulnerability and, 10

body consciousness: “being a body” versus “having a body,” in, 13–18

exercise and, 102, 109, 112

experiencing God through, 85

focused on appearance, 112

self-criticism in, 104–5

Body in Pain, The (Scarry), 147, 166

Brumberg, J., 56, 60, 111, 163

Canetti, E., 95, 164

celibacy, experienced as freedom, 149

Chicago Interfaith Council for the Homeless, homeless project of, 149

childbirth, vulnerability and relationality in, 2

children: baptism of, 43–49

bodily exertion of, 101–2

and learning to eat, 92–93

and learning to sleep, 122

and table life, 87–88, 93

See also adolescent body

Christian church, as body of Christ, 7–8

Christian Church (Disciples of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table Of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Awakening to Sacred Vulnerability
• Pondering the Mystery of the Body
• Bathing the Body
• Clothing the Body
• Nourishing the Body
• Blessing Our Table Life
• Exerting and Resting the Body
• Honoring the Sexual Body
• Honoring the Suffering Body
• References
• Index
• Continuation of Copyright Page
• The Author