God : an anatomy / Francesca Stavrakopoulou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stavrakopoulou, Francesca, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

God--Corporeality--History of doctrines.

God.

Image of God--History of doctrines.

Image of God.

Masculinity of God--History of doctrines.

Masculinity of God.

God (Christianity).

God--Corporeality.

Physical Description:

xx, 583 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2021.

Summary:

"An astonishing and revelatory history that re-presents God as he was originally envisioned by ancient worshippers--with a distinctly male body, and with superhuman powers, earthly passions, and a penchant for the fantastic and monstrous. The scholarship of theology and religion teaches us that the God of the Bible was without a body, only revealing himself in the Old Testament in words mysteriously uttered through his prophets, and in the New Testament in the body of Christ. The portrayal of God as corporeal and masculine is seen as merely metaphorical, figurative, or poetic. But, in this revelatory study, Francesca Stavrakopoulou presents a vividly corporeal image of God: a human-shaped deity who walks and talks and weeps and laughs, who eats, sleeps, feels, and breathes, and who is undeniably male. Here is a portrait--arrived at through the author's close examination of and research into the Bible--of a god in ancient myths and rituals who was a product of a particular society, at a particular time, made in the image of the people who lived then, shaped by their own circumstances and experience of the world. From head to toe--and every part of the body in between--this is a god of stunning surprise and complexity, one we have never encountered before"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Dissecting the divine

Grounded

Footloose

Sensational feet

Cover up

Phallic masculinities

Perfecting the penis

Divine sex

Back and beyond

Inside out

From belly to bowel

Handedness

Arm's reach

Divine touch

Holy handbooks

Face to face

Headstrong beauty

Profile

Sense and sensitivity

Gasp and gulp

An autopsy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 501-542) and index.

ISBN:

1509867333

9781509867332

150986735X

9781509867356

OCLC:

1240494541