D
djeter
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http://payingattentiontothesky.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/embodiedperson.jpg?w=250&h=336
*“We are not our own. . . Belonging to ourselves at its root is always anteriorly a belonging to God and to others, to the entire community of being.” *
I am always reminded of Michael Novak’s comment on those who view themselves as “atheists:”
“Gathering force over many years, one discovery has hit me with the force of a law: If you make mistakes about your own nature, you will make as many mistakes about God, and quite properly then, reject what your inquiries put before you. The god you fantasize will appear to you not very great, a delusion, a snare from which others ought to be freed. You will despise this god.”
I can think of nothing more fundamental to the understanding of who we are (from a Christian anthropological point of view) than the idea that we are Embodied Persons. When speaking with an atheist, I often try to enquire as to who they think they are, what their essential nature is. Do you have a soul? Is it part of you? How? Catholics can find all those answers in JPII’s Theology of the Body.
John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is a remarkable vision. David Schindler begins an essay by defining six characteristics of it. The essay (The Embodied Person as Gift) is pretty advanced stuff but I have separated out and presented the six characteristics he begins with here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/07/13/reading-selections-from-the-embodied-person-as-gift-by-david-l-schindler/
These are amazing things to think about. Hope you enjoy it.
dj
*“We are not our own. . . Belonging to ourselves at its root is always anteriorly a belonging to God and to others, to the entire community of being.” *
I am always reminded of Michael Novak’s comment on those who view themselves as “atheists:”
“Gathering force over many years, one discovery has hit me with the force of a law: If you make mistakes about your own nature, you will make as many mistakes about God, and quite properly then, reject what your inquiries put before you. The god you fantasize will appear to you not very great, a delusion, a snare from which others ought to be freed. You will despise this god.”
I can think of nothing more fundamental to the understanding of who we are (from a Christian anthropological point of view) than the idea that we are Embodied Persons. When speaking with an atheist, I often try to enquire as to who they think they are, what their essential nature is. Do you have a soul? Is it part of you? How? Catholics can find all those answers in JPII’s Theology of the Body.
John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is a remarkable vision. David Schindler begins an essay by defining six characteristics of it. The essay (The Embodied Person as Gift) is pretty advanced stuff but I have separated out and presented the six characteristics he begins with here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/07/13/reading-selections-from-the-embodied-person-as-gift-by-david-l-schindler/
These are amazing things to think about. Hope you enjoy it.
dj