Yale University Press
Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity
Key Metrics
- Candida R Moss
- Yale University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780300179767
- 8.3 X 5.4 X 0.9 inches
- 0.85 pounds
- Religion > Christian Theology - History
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
When people talk about the resurrection they often assume that the bodies in the afterlife will be perfect. But which version of our bodies gets resurrected--young or old, healthy or sick, real-to-life or idealized? What bodily qualities must be recast in heaven for a body to qualify as both ours and heavenly?
The resurrection is one of the foundational statements of Christian theology, but when it comes to the New Testament only a handful of passages helps us answer the question What will those bodies be like? More problematically, the selection and interpretation of these texts are grounded in assumptions about the kinds of earthly bodies that are most desirable. Drawing upon previously unexplored evidence in ancient medicine, philosophy, and culture, this illuminating book both revisits central texts--such as the resurrection of Jesus--and mines virtually ignored passages in the Gospels to show how the resurrection of the body addresses larger questions about identity and the self.
Author Bio
My work primarily focuses on ideas about martyrdom, death, suffering, and afterlife in the New Testament and literature of Early Christianity. I have additional interests in disability theory and theology, religion and public life, the Bible and education, and cultural heritage.
I read theology as an undergraduate at Oxford, before moving to the United States to pursue post-graduate work in Biblical Studies at, first Yale Divinity School and, later, Yale Graduate School. In 2008, I moved to the University of Notre Dame to teach classes in the departments of Theology, Classics, and History before coming to Birmingham in 2017.
While my academic work is primarily historical, I work in the public sphere as s Papal news commentator for CBS news, a cultural commentator and columnist for The Daily Beast, and a religion news commentator and writer for CNN, BBC, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discovery Channel, History Channel, and others. A great deal of my recent work has focused on the intersection of religion and politics and the influence of certain religious ideas on international relations, policy making, and education.
Research Interests
I am currently completing a book, based on the 2017 Cadbury Lectures, on Resurrection on the New Testament, Ancient Medicine, Disability, and Constructions of the Bodies.
Other ongoing projects include the Hermeneia Commentary on Second Century Martyrdom Accounts and a Bestiary of the Bible
Source: University of Birmingham
Videos
Community reviews
Write a ReviewNo Community reviews