Aspects of "Body" in Western Christianity(Practice and Body in Religion,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

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  • 西欧キリスト教史における「行と身体」の諸相(宗教における行と身体,<特集>第六十六回学術大会紀要)
  • 西欧キリスト教史における「行と身体」の諸相
  • セイオウ キリストキョウシ ニ オケル ギョウ ト シンタイ ノ ショソウ

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed some light on the significance of "body" in religious life in Western Christianity, and to present some aspects of it comparable to the "Oriental" or Japanese religious practices called gyo (or shugyo). First I emphasize the strong tendency to mind-body dualism throughout the history of Western religiosity, notwithstanding the Christian dogma of incarnation that implies the essential significance of "bodiliness" for human existence. It is mainly in the medieval and early modern monastic tradition that rich practices and speculations about body in the religious life can be observed. In them I tentatively distinguish four attitudes toward body, according to the evaluation of and concern for it: the attitude 1) that evaluates the bodiliness of human existence negatively and concerns it actively (vita ascetica) , 2) that evaluates it positively and concerns it actively {vita activa), 3) that evaluates it negatively and concerns it passively {vita contemplativa) , and 4) that evaluates it positively and to concerns it passively (vita mirabilis), illustrating each of them by cases from 16th and 17th century Spanish monks and nuns, especially that of Peter of Alcantara and Teresa of Avila. In the conclusion the argument is focused on the fourth attitude, in which the body is significant, not for the religious themselves but for others who observe it and receive a deep impression from it.

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