Bodies, Embodiment, and Theology of the Hebrew Bible

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Recognizing that human experience is very much influenced by inhabiting bodies, the past decade has seen a surge in studies about representation of bodies in religious experience and human imaginations regarding the Divine. The understanding of embodiment as central to human experience has made a big impact within religious studies particularly in contemporary Christian theology, feminist, cultural and ideological criticism and anthropological approaches to the Hebrew Bible. Within the sub-field of theology of the Hebrew Bible, the conversation is still dominated by assumptions that the God of the Hebrew Bible does not have a body and that embodiment of the divine is a new concept introduced outside of the Hebrew Bible. To a great extent, the insights regarding how body discourse can communicate information have not yet been incorporated into theological studies.

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The focus of this volume of collected papers is the appropriate reading lens for interpretation of embodiment language, with regard to God and to human beings, in the Hebrew Bible. The papers explore the subject of the complex anthropomorphisms in the biblical books, with relation to Gods biblical bodies, human biblical bodies, divine bodies, human bodies, and todays reader.This approach is viewed as innovative and separate from much previous biblical scholarship which centred on spiritual interpretations of bodies, especially the metaphysical interpretation of the divine body ... This volume combines a desire to discuss overarching issues about the use of the human form within biblical theology with attention to specific texts and topics relevant to the study of the Hebrew Bible. -- Mary E. Mills, Liverpool Hope University, UK * Journal of Theological Studies (Vol. 64.2) *

Author Bio

Tamar Kamionkowski, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Bible and Academic Dean of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel. Wonil Kim, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament at the School of Religion, La Sierra University. Wonil Kim, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament at the School of Religion, La Sierra University