Life in the flesh
Subtitle: an anti-Gnostic spiritual philosophy
By: Adam G. Cooper.
Publisher: University of Oxford
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 283
ISBN-13: 9780199546626
Subjects: Body, Human -- Religious aspects -- History of doctrines; Body, Human; Gnosticism; Spirituality
Description: Christianity is deeply interested in the body. In its central mysteries -- creation, incarnation, and resurrection--the body and human flesh are radically implicated. Bodies are persons, and persons are spiritual beings, bearers of the divine image and destined for bodily union with God. From the Bible to the Second Vatican Council, from Irenaeus and Tertullian to Aquinas and Luther, the classic sources of the Christian tradition engender a spiritual philosophy that challenges the ever-present gnostic impulse either to marginalize, or else to worship, the body. Adam G. Cooper brings these rich sources into conversation with numerous contemporary voices in philosophy and theology, offering an illuminating and critical perspective on such pressing social and ethical questions as pornography, feminism, philosophy of mind, sterility, and death.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The Old Testament; title: The New Testament; title: The early church; title: Thomas Aquinas; title: Martin Luther; title: Metaphysics and morality; title: Mind and body; title: Sex and gender; title: Pornography and violence; title: Sterility and death.