Embodied Existence: Our Common Life in God
Ebook
This book makes a case, from an ecumenical Christian perspective, for a theological anthropology and a missiology that are based on the essential significance of story, body, imagination, and relationality, in order to understand what it means to be human vis-a-vis God, the other, and creation. Such an interpretation, moreover, enables seeking and pursuing a common life for the whole creation in the force field of God's radical and transformative reign. To advance its argument, it engages contemporary culture, including cinema and, to a lesser extent, fiction and music.
“Embodied Existence critiques a prominent Christian position that encourages social isolation and exclusivism and offers a helpful and necessary pathway for future dialogue, especially if Christianity is to be a relevant contributor to social meaning and cultural truth. Embodied Existence is a profound book that deserves a wide audience. It is particularly relevant for pastors, theologians, and contemporary Jesus followers who want to engage our world respectfully, intelligently, and courageously.”
—Michael Trainor, Australian Catholic University
“In our increasingly virtual world where the collapsing of time and space has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are in need more than ever of an incarnational theological anthropology that sees matter as the means for bearing the weight of God’s presence. Embodied Existence provides such a theological vision. . . . Through this remarkable book, Bargár teaches us much about what it means to be human.”
—Aristotle “Telly” Papanikolaou, Fordham University
“This theological anthropology is a creative encounter with a wide range of theologians, but the main stimulus comes from contemporary films that explore the pain, ambiguity, and joy of being human. The author draws us into an engaging conversation on being bodies, as he grapples with what is true, good, and beautiful. The result is not a dry book on doctrine but a warm invitation into being Christian—in order to be genuinely human.”
—J. N. J. Kritzinger, University of South Africa, emeritus
“This book is a refreshing treat in theological anthropology. It is an invitation for interactively doing theology in conscious relationality. Through the scars of the worldwide pandemic the ‘what about the body?’ question compels faith-praxis. Pavol Bargár poses this question through the entry of art/film as embodied theology, and he provokes the readers’ own answers and the answers from theologizing community. The book is theology at its best: it is existential, it is public theology.”
—Dorottya Nagy, Protestant Theological University
“Pavol Bargár’s inspiring theological anthropology and missiological vision articulate a deep sociotransformative longing for the advent of God’s ‘kin-dom’ within humanity’s embodied, communal life. Moved by an acute awareness of the fragility of human bodies, the world-mending capacity of the imagination, and the unavoidable relationality of the cosmos, this volume invites the reader on a wondrous journey into the story of God that circumscribes all of creation into the hopeful anticipation of its ontological renewal.”
—Daniela C. Augustine, University of Birmingham
- Title: Embodied Existence: Our Common Life in God
- Authors: Stephen Bevans, Pavol Bargár
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666744101, 9781666744095, 1666744093, 9781666744088, 1666744085, 1666744107
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666744101
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-05-09T22:52:12Z
Pavol Bargár is assistant professor and researcher at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He is the author of Narrative, Myth, Transformation: Reflecting Theologically on Contemporary Culture (2016).