Sensing sacred : exploring the human senses in practical theology and pastoral care / edited by Jennifer Baldwin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Baldwin, Jennifer, editor.

Series:

Studies in body and religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Senses and sensation--Religious aspects.

Senses and sensation.

Human body--Religious aspects.

Human body.

Physical Description:

xv, 189 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, [2016]

Summary:

Sensing Sacred: Exploring the Human Senses in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care is on edited collection that explores the critical intersection of "religion" and "body" through the religious lens of practical theology, with an emphasis on sensation as the embodied means through which human beings know themselves, others, and the divine in the world. The book argues that all human interaction and practice, including religious praxis, engages "body" through at least one of the human senses (touch, smell, hearing, taste, sight, kinestics/proprioception). Unfortunately, body-and, more specifically and ironically, sensation-is eclipsed in contemporary academic scholarship that is inherently bent toward the realm of theory and ideas. This is unfortunate because it neglects bodies, physical or communal, as the repository and generator of culturally conditioned ideas and theory. It is ironic because all knowledge transmission minimally requires several senses including sight, touch, and hearing. Sensing Sacred is organized into two parts. The first section devotes a chapter to each of the human sense as an avenue of accessing religious experience, while the second section explores religious practices specifically focus on one or more senses. The overarching aim of this collection is to explicitly highlight each sense and utilize the theoretical lenses of practical theology to bring to vivid life the connections between essential sensation and religious thinking and practice. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Exploring the Senses 25

1 Smelling Remembrance / Martha S. Jacobi Jacobi, Martha S. 27

2 Embodying Christ, Touching Others / Shirley S. Guider Guider, Shirley S. 41

3 Savoring Taste as Religious Praxis: Where Individual and Social Intimacy Converge / Stephanie N. Arel Arel, Stephanie N. 57

4 Akroatic, Embodied Hearing and Presence as Spiritual Practice / Jennifer Baldwin Baldwin, Jennifer 73

5 Devotional Looking and the Possibilities of Free Associative Sight / Sonia Waters Waters, Sonia 89

6 Knowing through Moving: African Embodied Epistemologies / Emmanuel Y. Lartey Lartey, Emmanuel Y. 101

Part II Sensing Religious Practices 115

7 Use of a Hot Tub as Spiritual Practice: Three Decades of Daily Baptism by Immersion / John C. Can Can, John C. 117

8 Word Made Flesh: Using Visual Textuality of Sign Languages to Construct Religious Meaning and Identity / Jason Hays Hays, Jason 131

9 A Laying On of Hands: Black Feminist Intimations of the Divine and Healing Touch in Religious Practice / Christina Jones Davis Davis, Christina Jones 143

10 Have We Lost Our Taste?: Caring for Black Bodies through Food / Kenya J. Tuttle Tuttle, Kenya J. 157

11 Holy Transitional and Transcendent Smells: Aromatherapy as an Adjunctive Support for Trauma in Pastoral Care and Counseling / Jennifer Baldwin Baldwin, Jennifer 169.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Sensing sacred

ISBN:

9781498531238

1498531237

9781498531252

1498531253

OCLC:

951465471

Publisher Number:

40026393547