Gender Politics and Bodily Resurrection
by Beth Felker Jones
I believe this book began as a doctoral dissertation, which is not too surprising because it seems like all the most interesting
scholarship comes out of theses and such... it being a fairly new discipline that I'm interested in. No pressure.
Jones looks at the doctrine of bodily resurrection from a feminist, body-positive perspective. Looking at Calvin and Augustine,
she argues that we have resources within Christian tradition for treating the human person as an essential unity of body and
soul, that salvation necessarily works on the physical body as well as the soul, and that separating this union (by valuing
soul over body, or valuing the body uncritically) is sinful.
She focuses on the ways we have conceptualized the resurrection as evidence of Christian attitudes toward the physical body.
Will we have fleshly bodies at the resurrection? (yes, necessarily, she says.) What will they look like? Will they have gender
characteristics? What about scars or medical conditions?
It brings up some great questions, both explicitly and in my head. It's hard to imagine what my post-resurrection body would
look like... it would be somehow "ideal," (but who decides what is "ideal"? clearly most of our judgements about ideal body
type thus far have been rooted in sin of some kind...) but what would happen to the scars (psychic and physical) that for
better or worse have helped define me as a person? What about people who have unhealthy relationships with their own
bodies, what will their post-resurrection bodies look like?
In some ways, of course, this debate is a moot point. We don't have any idea what the resurrection will look like, or even if it
will be something that we could call "resurrection." But as with much theology, it's interesting to think about because it tells
us so much about the way we conceptualize this life and our present bodies. It is important to treat ourselves as body-soul
unions both because it is spiritually "right," and also because of the implications for our interactions with others and
ourselves.
What might it mean to honor our bodies in church together with our souls? We might need to learn a religious vocabulary for
talking about sinfulness and holiness as they relate to actual bodies, not just writing off bodies as "not the church's problem."
It is interesting, though, that Jones chose to look at doctrines of resurrection rather than anything dealing with actual
human life. But I suppose it's easier to talk about a taboo subject by talking at it indirectly, as is the case with so many other
things. It'll be fun to apply some of her research to the other end of life, particularly crucifixion.
