The Sacred Body: Asceticism in Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture

by David Jasper

Overview

Continuing the work began in The Sacred Desert, David Jasper here turns his attention to the body, seeking a profound understanding of what it means to be in the flesh. A deeply autobiographical journey through disparate written texts (in literature, philosophy, theology and religion), art, and cinema, The Sacred Body rigorously and artfully pursues the body of the Christian tradition of "the Word made flesh"—a body torn and crucified, resurrected, and divinized, embracing both deep suffering and profound joy. Engaging ascetic traditions that began among fourth-century desert monastics, as well as George Herbert, Simone Weil, Meister Eckhart, James Joyce and others, David Jasper once again provides a bold, learned, and original theological exploration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602581418
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2009
Series:	Studies in Christianity and Literature , #4
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Glasgow and is Distinguished Overseas Professor of Comparative Literature in the School of Liberal Arts at Renmin University of China.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Preface

1. Introduction: A Sunlit Landscape amid the Night of Non-Being

2. The Soul as Sacred Space

3. The Body, Sacred and Profane

4. The Word and the Body

5. Asceticism as a Way of Love with a Modern Excursus

6. Asceticism Imposed and Recovered: Velasquez, Martha and the Eyes of Faith

7. The Eucharistic Body in Literature and Modern Experience: George Herbert and Simone Weil

8. Holiness and the Resurrection Body: Meister Eckhart and James Joyce

9. Romanticism and the Recovery of the Sacred in Language

10. Towards Conclusions: Theological Possibilities

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

George Newlands

This deeply serious meditation contains fresh, often dazzling, interpretations of classical literature and painting. Quintessential Jasper—his best book yet.

David E. Klemm

A beautiful, even inspired, book that weaves through art, literature, Scripture, and philosophy.

Thomas J. J. Altizer

One of our most challenging and imaginative thinkers here goes well beyond his previous important work and gives us an incredibly comprehensive analysis. Jasper understands the sacred desert critically, philosophically, and theologically at once, even while embodying that desert in a genuinely mystical meditation. In The Sacred Body desert becomes cosmos itself, as we are consumed in its unfolding, and are summoned to become what we behold.

Editorial Reviews

…a moderate, eirenic and thoughtful study, which seeks to demonstrate that struggling with Christian tradition can be productive and even lead to 'genius.'

Modern Believing - Alison Milbank

... heartily recommended for readers interested in intellectual and spiritual exploration.

Christianity and Literature - Eugene Webb

As an author, Jasper is not ashamed to bare his own life before the reader's eyes. His method is refreshingly frank in its idiosyncrasy: personal anecdotes are common, the personal pronoun is abundant, and the book as a whole has an artful, syncopated quality.

Christian Scholar's Review

David Jasper is a mighty theologian, and this short book... represents a serious, dense, and powerful contribution to contemporary theology—strong medicine indeed.... It is certainly a book that demands a second reading, and perhaps many more.

Church Times

[Jasper's] ability to draw the expected and unexpected partner into a conversation on the ascetic body is no mere clever or playful attempt to 'convince,' rather he invites the reader into the conversation to become part of the pursuit of a possibility for theology today.

The Journal of Theological Studies - Paul M. Collins

"A beautiful, even inspired, book that weaves through art, literature, Scripture, and philosophy."

--David E. Klemm, Professor of Modern Religious Thought, The University of Iowa

"This deeply serious meditation contains fresh, often dazzling, interpretations of classical literature and painting. Quintessential Jasper--his best book yet."

--George Newlands, Professor of Divinity, University of Glasgow

From the Publisher