Medieval theology and the natural body

Book Description

This scholarly collection explores how medieval Christian thinkers understood the relationship between spiritual life and physical existence, offering profound insights for anyone seeking to understand the body-soul connection in religious experience.

Drawing from a 1995 conference at the University of York, these essays examine how medieval theologians grappled with fundamental questions about embodiment that remain relevant today. The volume investigates how religious figures from St. Augustine to Christine de Pizan conceptualized the tension between physical and spiritual realities, particularly through the complex metaphor of man as head and woman as body.

The collection delves into Peter Abelard's revolutionary thinking about the senses, resurrection, and the famous correspondence with Heloise that explored how religious life transforms our relationship with the physical self. Readers will discover how medieval Cathars viewed material existence and how scholastic theologians debated women's roles in religious authority.

Particularly compelling are the examinations of female mystics and their experiences of spiritual rapture, including detailed analysis of Margery Kempe's vivid awareness of both her own embodiment and that of others. The volume concludes with insights into how St. Francis of Assisi's early followers understood his relationship to the physical world.

For contemporary spiritual seekers, this work illuminates how our ancestors in faith wrestled with questions about the body's place in religious experience, offering historical perspective on enduring spiritual challenges about integrating physical and transcendent dimensions of human existence.