And thence to Belgium...

This is a similar post to one I wrote about going to Norway a little while ago - it concerns a paper I'm presenting, and the abstract is produced below. Edit - I was invited last minute to present a second paper, in the Biblical Studies section, the abstract of which I have added to this post.

I'm excited to be heading to Leuven, in Belgium, this week to present a paper titled ‘The Guiding Trajectory of Love: Embodied Creatures caught up in the Trinity’, in the 'Anthropos' section of a conference run by the 'International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture'. The paper represents an initial attempt at fleshing out the eschatological questions of my exploration of what it means to be human in the Image of God, in dialogue with that difficult statement in scripture that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). I reproduce the abstract below, and will likely publish the paper soon.

i. Abstract

Fundamental to both classical and contemporary discussions of ‘God’ is the text of 1 John 4:8, that ‘God is love’. The myriad of meanings drawn from this, however, raise a multitude of questions. Yet as well as being love, this God must also be seen as acting in/out of love in relation to his creatures, especially the image-bearing human creature. This ‘love’, however, is not static but rather dynamic, characterised as ‘condescending love, or rather a heavenly reality which in some sense descends from stage to stage into this world’. It is this direction, this invading and descending reality, that embraces humans as embodied creatures and involves them in the glorious life of the Trinity.

This paper considers an understanding of humanity based on the traditional doctrine of the imago Dei, painted in new terms which resonate with theological realities of the presence and glory of God, and which fundamentally concerned with the eschatological trajectory of love as being concerned with the purposes of God for creation. LaCugna speaks of the human soul as being on a specific journey, and that this human self ‘must resemble that which it images and that to which it seeks to return’. By bringing theological discussion of the human-ness of being an embodied creature into conversation with the vital understanding of God as Trinity, this paper will map the guiding trajectory of love, discussing the human creature in light of the promise of eschatology. Here, with Thiselton, we consider what it means that ‘The ‘glory’ which awaits every Christian is precisely and primarily the presence of God. Very much secondarily, it then involves not a human projection, but God’s new creation’, as future reality which must impinge on our present understanding and imagining of what it is to be human. 

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‘Human embodiment in contemporary culture: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 in relation to universal and subjective experience’

i. Abstract

The multi-faceted and initially bewildering language of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 engages the present-day reader with an unsettling and complex understanding of what it means to talk of the body. This presents a fascinating text to consider inter-relatedness of human bodies, concepts which imply both limit and opportunity. Elizabeth Kent, a Methodist, notes that ‘having a body is a shared feature of human existence, though the subjective experience of being embodied is unique to every person’, echoing the strong emphasis on the universal experience of embodiment echoed in theological reflection. This universal yet subjective experience is embedded in the text of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, which is recognised in one substantive commentary as being substantially concerned with ‘the Theology of the Body’. From this text, a consideration of human existence in contemporary culture can be considered, which is a theme carefully explored by Hering.

This paper argues that intertwined and complex nature of this passage - where Paul interchangeable refers to individual bodies and the body of Christ - gives important clues as to one biblical ethic of what it might mean to be human. Thiselton argues that this section demonstrates the ‘inseparability… of theology and ethics’, as ethical command is interwoven with a theological understanding of the body of Christ. The mesh of ethics and theology in this passage, then, echoes the complexity of living as a human being in contemporary culture. Kent raises a challenge, that ‘the complexities of embodied existence in contemporary culture call for a theological response’, which this paper seeks to begin to bring into being through an engagement with the text of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.

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Thanks for reading! I'd still welcome comments and suggestions as I prepare the final(ish) versions of these papers. I'd love to connect with you via Facebook generally, and Twitter in particular if you want to hear about the conference (I'm a voracious Tweeter!).