The good news of the body : sexual theology and feminism / edited by Lisa Isherwood.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Isherwood, Lisa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex--Religious aspects--Catholic Church.

Sex.

Feminist theology.

Physical Description:

230 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, 2000.

Summary:

The Good News of the Body is a wide-ranging anthology on feminist sexual theology. Noting that Jesus, while being declared divine, took human form, the volume questions what happens when the flesh, rather than the Word, is placed at the center of theological reflection. What happens when women's bodies form the incarnational starting point for sexual politics and theology? Contributors examine such topics as the possibility of a Roman Catholic approach to sexuality, bringing together the three aspects of Christian love of eros, philia, and agape; Jewish sexual and mystical teaching; the de-sexing of the the disabled; erotic celibacy; human sexuality and the concept of the goddess; and the sometimes surprisingly similar conclusions about contraception reached by feminists and popes.

Contents:

Introduction: Foreplay: Stirrings Around the Hetero-patriarchal Narrative of our Time 9

Part I Women, Sex and Established Religions

Sex and Body Politics: Issues for Feminist Theology / Lisa Isherwood 20

Sex in the Catholic Tradition / Rosemary Radford Ruether 35

'Refresh me with Apples for I am Faint with Love' (Song of Songs 2.5): Jewish Feminism, Mystical Theology and the Sexual Imaginary / Melissa Raphael 54

Part II Sexual Theology and Women's Power

Are We Making Love Yet? Theological and Psychological Perspectives on the Role of Gender Identity in the Experience of Domination / Lallene J. Rector 74

Same Difference? Power, Equality and Lesbian Relating / Alison Webster 96

Human Sexuality and the Concept of the God/ess / Beverley Clack 115

Part III Celibacy and Contraception

A Strange Convergence? Popes and Feminists on Contraception / Adrian Thatcher 136

Erotic Celibacy: Claiming Empowered Space / Lisa Isherwood 149

Part IV Reflections from the Edges

Disruptive Bodies: Disability, Embodiment and Sexuality / Elizabeth Stuart 166

'Canonized for Love': Pleasure and Death in Modernity / Grace M. Jantzen 185

Indecent Exposures: Excessive Sex and the Crisis of Theological Representation / Marcella Maria Althaus-Reid 205

Epilogue: Safe Sex: A Feminist Theological Reflection 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0814737676

0814737684

OCLC:

43894351