Word Made Flesh Research Articles

Book Review: The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation

Book Review: The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation

Major Review: The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation by Ian A. McFarland

Major Review: The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation by Ian A. McFarland

The Word Made Flesh: The Incarnation and Catholic Biblical Interpretation

The Word Made Flesh: The Incarnation and Catholic Biblical Interpretation

Striking the Chords of Spirit and Flesh in Polish Poetry: A Serendipity by Ward Jean (review)

Slavonic and East European Review, 97, 4, 2019 Reviews Ward,Jean;Fengler,MariaandGrzegorzewska,Maria(eds).StrikingtheChords of Spirit and Flesh in Polish Poetry: A Serendipity. between.pomiędzy, 9. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk, 2016. 421 pp. Notes. Index. Zł33.60 (paperback). This is an interesting if, as the title implies, somewhat eccentric collection of essays and poems linked — in some cases explicitly, in others rather tenuously — to the central theme of the co-existence, across the history of Polish poetry from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, of ‘the interwoven themes of flesh, word and spirit’ (p. 12). Inspired by the ‘Poetry: Word Made Flesh: Flesh Made Word’ conference held in 2013 in Gdańsk, the book reads very much like a conference proceedings, despite the fact that most of the essays included in the volume — for they are clearly self-standing essays rather than chapters — were actually commissioned specifically for this collection. While the resulting impression of managed randomness that the book creates may not in itself be a bad thing, a reader trying to look for common threads linking the individual essays together will only ever be able to make an occasional, though indeed serendipitous, connection here and there. The sense of structural looseness that characterizes the volume is reinforced by the tentativeness of the identification of its target audience, and of the handling of the resulting issues of contextualization, translation, annotation, etc. Some of the essays — for example, Mirosława Hanusiewicz-Lavallee’s excellent comparative study of the literature of Polish Baroque and the tradition of English metaphysical poetry, or Dariusz Konrad Sikorski’s immensely informative piece on the poetry of Polish Jews, with a particular focus on the interwar period — are clearly addressed to Anglophone audiences, and make appropriate, well-judged concessions to readers unfamiliar with the Polish language and the historical, social and literary context of the texts under discussion. The situation is more complicated, perhaps inevitably given the historical significance and the philosophical complexity of the heritage of Polish Romanticism, with contributions focusing on the literature of the nineteenth century: both Szymon Hiżycki in his reading of Mickiewicz’s ‘Widzenie’, and Rolf Fieguth in his essay on Słowacki’s and Norwid’s political and historiosophical visions perceived in the context of other writings of the period, particularly Krasiński’s Irydion, make valiant attempts to contextualize their central arguments by providing extensive background commentary on Polish Romanticism, but their essays become, as a result, somewhat diffuse in terms of their focus and clarity of argument. There are no such difficulties when it comes to single-author studies focusing on a particular aspect of their work: thus, for example, the theme of the physical and spiritual dimensions of SEER, 97, 4, OCTOBER 2019 774 death is subtly explored by Klaudia Łączyńska in her essay on Leśmian, and by Joanna Skolik in her study of Ewa Lipska. The critical section of the book ends with an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable contribution by Bill Johnston on translating the poems of Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki — it may not fit in with the rest of the volume thematically, but as the editors explain in their introduction, its purpose is to provide a bridge to the final part of the book, a mini-anthology of English translations of some of the key poems discussed in the preceding sections. It is precisely this mini-anthology that helps the reader realize what constitutes the main achievement of the book: it broadens the perspective from which Anglophone readers perceive Polish literature by bringing to their attention a range of new and unexpected dimensions of Polish poetry, some of which are unfamiliar even to well-educated but non-specialist Polish readers: how many people have actually ever heard about, let alone read, Maurycy Szymel or Maurycy Schlanger? The credit for this is due, in large measure, to the sterling work done by the translators, not just of the poems included in the mini-anthology, but also of the numerous quotations across the volume: led and supported by the volume’s main editor, Jean Ward, they have done a spectacular job in translating some of the most lexically...

Problems with the Word Made Flesh: The Great Tradition of the Scientific Revolution in Europe

Abstract The Great Tradition of writing about what came to be called The Scientific Revolution developed in the mid-twentieth century and helped to shape what came to be termed “early modern” Europe. At least two fundamental structural elements of the framework were that a small group of independent minds had been set free to grasp new truths, and that rivalries among many groups in Europe never allowed “European civilization” to achieve homeostasis, thus continuing to encourage innovation in conditions of freedom. It is worth noting, however, that the first of these structural elements had religious overtones that were important in the early stages of the Cold War, and that the second placed innovation within a tradition of great texts rather than material culture and practice. Both changed the earlier conversation of the 1930s, which had been about political economies, connecting the new history of science to a history that offered to explain European superiority on the basis of the search for truth. Recent developments in global history, which are rooted in economic histories, challenge such a framing. The brand-name of The Scientific Revolution is common and will remain a useful short-hand, but its meaning requires major revision and should not be limited to the history of Europe.

Why Holiness is Necessary for Theology: Some Thomistic Distinctions

The Thomist 74 (2010): 437-59 WHY HOLINESS IS NECESSARY FOR THEOLOGY: SOME THOMISTIC DISTINCTIONS1 GREGORY F. LANAVE Dominican House of Studies Washington, D.C. IN 1989, THE CARMELITE theologian Fran~ois-Marie Lethel published a book on what he called "The Theology of the Saints." The book was the dissertation he had written at Fribourg under the direction of the Dominican Christoph Schonborn. Its opening line is a succinct and bold claim regarding the nature of theology: "All saints are theologians, and only saints are theologians."2 Lethel is one of many modern Catholic theologians who have talked about the importance of integrating theology and holiness.3 1 An earlier version of this article was presented on 17 October 2009, at the "Thomistic Circles" Conference on "Thomism and the Renewal of Theology." 2 Frarn;;ois-Marie Lethe!, Connaftre /'amour du Christ qui surpasse toute connaissance: La theologie des saints (Venasque: Editions du Carmel, 1989), 3: "Tous !es saints sont theologiens, seuls Jes saints sont theologiens." 3 Best known is perhaps Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Theology and Sanctity," in Explorations in Theology, vol. 1, The Word Made Flesh, trans. A. V. Littledale and Alexander Dru (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989), 181-209. See also Harvey D. Egan, "Theology and Spirituality," in Declan Marmion and Mary E. Hines, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 13-28; Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology (New York: The Seabury Press, 1972), esp. 237-45 ("Conversions and Breakdowns"); William M. Thompson, Fire and Light: The Saints and Theology (New York and Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987); Jon Sobrino, Spirituality ofLiberation: Toward Political Holiness, trans. Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1988}; Nicholas Lash, Holiness, Speech, and Silence: Reflections on the Question ofGod (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004); James Keating, ed., Seminary Theology: Teaching in a Contemplative Way (Omaha, Neb.: The Institute for Priestly Formation, 2010). Some Thomists have taken up the topic specifically: see, e.g., Jean-Pierre Torrell, "Theologie et saintete," Revue Thomiste 71 (1971): 205-21; idem, "Theology and Spirituality," in Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 2, Spiritual Master, trans. 437 438 GREGORY F. LANAVE Such efforts are hardly uniform; neither are the various diagnoses they offer regarding the situation that prompts their call. This is perhaps inevitable, given the ambiguity surrounding the terms "theology" and "holiness": for recent decades have seen the rise of many and varied definitions of "theology," and "holiness" has no fixed, commonly recognized definition. Moreover, if the task of integration is posed as a question, it admits of two very different types of answer. That is, if we ask, "How are theology and holiness to be integrated?" the answer could focus on the way in which theology fosters the achievement of holiness, or the way in which holiness fosters the achievement of theology.4 The present article attempts to contribute some clarity and content to the conversation by delineating various ways in which holiness is necessary for theology as understood in a Thomistic sense. The definition of theology is assumed, based largely on Aquinas's prologue to his Scriptum on the Sentences and the first question of the Summa Theologiae.5 For the sake of a systematic approach I will delineate this definition according to the four Robert Royal (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 1-21; F:iinche Ryan, Formation in Holiness: Thomas Aquinas on "Sacra Doctrina" (Leuven: Peeters, 2007). An echo of the same is found in certain magisterial teaching on the formation of priests, including Vatican Il's Optatam totius (a. 16) and John Paul II's apostolic exhortation Pastores dabo vobis (a. 53). Both texts quote the famous admonition of St. Bonaventure: let no one think that "mere reading will suffice without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration, observation without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without love, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without divinely inspired wisdom" (Itinerarium, pro.4 [Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, trans. Philotheus Boehner, Works of SaintBonaventure 2 (Saint Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1956), 33]). See also Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum veritatis, esp. nn. 8 and 9. 4 For a contrast along these...

The Word Made Flesh: Christianity and Oral Culture in Anglo-Saxon Verse

As far as the history of English literature goes, in the beginning was Caedmon’s Hymn, and Caedmon’s Hymn, at least as an inaugural event, seems something of a damp squib. 1 Not just because Bede’s description of the unexpected inspiration of the apparently Celtic-named putative parent of English verse has so many analogues in the form of similar and sometimes seemingly more miraculous stories (see, for examples, Atherton 2002; Ireland 1987; Lester 1974; O’Donnell 2005:29-60 and 191-202), including a Latin autobiographical account of the “inspiration” of the drunk Symphosius (whose Greek-derived name means “drinking-party animal” or suchlike), supposedly similarly spurred to song at a much earlier North African booze-up of his own, the narrative of which seems to have been known in Anglo-Saxon England at around the same time Caedmon took his fateful walk to commune with the common herd (Orchard forthcoming a). And not just because for many readers there is a lingering sense of disappointment on first acquaintance, since however well-constructed we are increasingly told that Caedmon’s Hymn may be (Howlett 1974; Conway 1995; but see O’Donnell 2005:179-86), the fact that the repetition of eight so seemingly trite and formulaic epithets for God (seven of them different, however) has seemed to some a tad excessive in a poem of only nine lines (Fry 1974 and 1981; Stanley 1995). Still further factors seem to undermine the iconic status of Caedmon’s Hymn, including its variant forms and the rumbling (if unlikely) suggestions that it is no more than a back-translation from Bede’s somehow superior Latin, at the margins of which it so often appears in the manuscripts (Kiernan 1990; Isaac 1997). Yet all such features might simply seem to add to what might be considered the appropriately primitive or unpolished aspects of what continues to be customarily described as an inaugural text. Nevertheless, surely the principal and continuing problem with regarding Caedmon’s Hymn as the beginning of English literature is the uncomfortable fact that it seems so obviously a beginning with a deep past, a hinterland of secular praise-poetry unfortunately unrevered by the Venerable Bede, who in fervently foregrounding Caedmon’s bovine ruminatio has literally obliterated what seems a sound link to the preliterate, pre-Latinate, pre-Christian past (West 1976; Wieland 1984; Niles 2003). However we assess the “miracle” of Caedmon’s

SUSANNAH MARY CHEWNING, ed. Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture: The Word Made Flesh.

IN her introduction, editor Susannah Mary Chewning explains the uniqueness of this collection when she highlights ‘its attempt to see the sexual in the spiritual and vice versa—and to see sexuality and the Divine as not one or another possibility but as part of a larger continuum that continues to adapt to human experience and progress’ (p. 4). Within the volume, the aspects of medieval culture in which sexuality and the divine intersect are divided into four sections, each containing two or three relatively short essays: secular literature and drama, romance and narrative, saints and religious women, and visionaries and mystics. Texts written for or by the laity dominate the first two sections; these include the York Joseph's Troubles Pageant (Michael W. George), the Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry (Mark Addison Amos), two fifteenth-century alchemical poems (Cynthea Masson), the Merchant's Tale (M. C. Bodden), and Pearl (Catherine S. Cox). The second half of the volume analyses hagiographic and mystical writings, including the Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Margarete (Julie E. Fromer), the writings of Gertrud the Great of Helfta (Alexandra Barratt), The Book of Margery Kempe (Liz Herbert McAvoy), post-Reformation Catholic texts (David A. Salomon), and the Wohunge Group (Michelle M. Sauer, as well as the editor's own contribution).

Susannah Mary Chewning ed., Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture: The Word Made Flesh. Ashgate, 2005

Susannah Mary Chewning ed., Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture: The Word Made Flesh. Ashgate, 2005

The Word Made Flesh: Festival, Carnality and Literary Consumption

The Word Made Flesh: Festival, Carnality and Literary Consumption

Word Made Flesh: Christianity, Modernity, and Cultural Colonialism in the Work of Jean and John Comaroff

Word Made Flesh: Christianity, Modernity, and Cultural Colonialism in the Work of Jean and John Comaroff

Word Made Flesh: Christianity, Modernity, and Cultural Colonialism in the Work of Jean and John Comaroff

Word Made Flesh: Christianity, Modernity, and Cultural Colonialism in the Work of Jean and John Comaroff

Word Made Flesh: Czech Women's Writing from Communism to Post-Communism

Abstract This article explores changes in from communism to post- communism, focusing in particular on women writers' relationship to literary discourse and feminism. It contends that women writers' rapport to ideological discourse and literary production under communism is a determining factor in relationship to both writing and feminism. It examines this literary legacy in terms of post-communism, surveying differences between a totalitarian socialist regime and that of a materialist, capitalist economy, as exemplified in literature. The article offers a survey major post-communist women writers, including Hodrova, Bouckova, Kriseova, as well as delving into a comparative close-reading analysis of two representatives of both communist and post-communist writing: Eva Kanturkova's Pritelkyne z domu smutku (Companions Of The Bleak House) and Iva Pekarkova's Kulaty svet (The World is Round). Both these texts offer a challenging vision of women's community for today's global order. Key Words: Czech, Women, literature ********** beginning was Word, and Word was with God, and Word was God And Word became flesh and lived among us ... (John 1:1; 1:14 NRSV) I begin with a rather revelationary quote, perhaps because my endeavor in this essay appears rather apocryphal: I will attempt a synoptic account of transition of from communist to post-communist era. At outset I faced with three seemingly eschatological dilemmas. First is difficulty I find in establishing a body of Czech fiction in corpus of literature when my belief is that good literature transcends all gender categorization, as it speaks of desires driving one's being and therefore tends towards universal human condition. Second, however, I am also convinced that, asymptotically, good writing is derived from an individual experience, which is gendered indeed, and so I must allow for a gendered women's experience which could be shared collectively. Finally, while oscillating between individualism and universalism, I must somehow take into account diversity of women writers that have contributed to literature over fifty year period but at same time positing a fundamental change revolving around of 1989 Velvet Revolution: communism and post-communism. Taking into account these dilemmas, I offer this revelationary parabolic parable: that from communism to post communism transformed from to flesh. The bare-bone skeleton of this argument may be structured as follows. In communism, language, both in its oppressive and resistant form, established Word as paradigm defining governing economy and resistant literary economy--the Word was God. In pre-revolutionary summer of 1989,Vaclav Havel drew from same Bible passage as I: can be said to be very source of our being, and in fact substance of cosmic life form we call human one thing would seem to be obvious: we have always believed in power of words to change history. (WW 377-378) Havel illustrates how under communism, power of words formulated itself in collective and generic terms, either as totalizing communalism of totalitarian system or in dissident denunciation advocating universal human rights. Conversely, in post-communism, the word became shift to a market economy, private property and democracy favored a turn to individualism, material concerns, and emphasis on body. In summer of 1991, in newly-formed Czechoslovak Federation, Havel's cautions against harmful effects of post-communism, which he submits are most saliently felt in flesh: the catastrophic decline in general cultural level, level of public manners, related to economic decline . …

From eternity to here: Paul Gauguin and the word made flesh

From Eternity To Here: Paul Gauguin and The Word Made Flesh Get access Edward D Powers Edward D Powers Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Art Journal, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 87–106, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/25.2.87 Published: 01 December 2002

From Eternity To Here: Paul Gauguin and The Word Made Flesh

From Eternity To Here: Paul Gauguin and The Word Made Flesh Get access Edward D Powers Edward D Powers Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Art Journal, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 87–106, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/25.2.87 Published: 01 December 2002

The Word Made Flesh: Gender and Embodiment in Contemporary Preaching

Preaching is a genre of religious discourse that traditionally has been available only to men. The past three decades have seen large numbers of women entering the Christian ministry and standing before congregations in order to expound the words of scripture. The gendered body is an essential part of the liturgical context of preaching but has so far been largely neglected in studies of gender and preaching.

The Word Made Flesh: Gender and Embodiment in Contemporary Preaching

Preaching is a genre of religious discourse that traditionally has been available only to men. The past three decades have seen large numbers of women entering the Christian ministry and standing before congregations in order to expound the words of scripture. The gendered body is an essential part of the liturgical context of preaching but has so far been largely neglected in studies of gender and preaching.

The Word Made Flesh

The Word Made Flesh

Flesh

Flesh

Flannery O'Connor, Laughter, and the Word Made Flesh

O'Connor's style is singular in American letters, combining an ambivalent, even abusive, social laughter that is not negative with images of self-contained, isolated figures characteristic of our own modern age. The combination lies at heart of her fiction and generates much of power contained within her grotesque work.(1) Her success lies in moving laughter to generalized positions in her narratives, incorporating it throughout her entire text. O'Connor understood quite well that specific laughter by a character or by a narrator would be viewed as either derogative or separatist, and thus laughter occurring on a textual level in O'Connor's work does not originate with a character or narrator. Directed neither at someone nor aligned with someone (which would intimate complicity), it is a general laughter of the and of partial knowledge.(2) Laughter in O'Connor is neither positive nor negative but supremely accepting (perhaps even indifferent), and it permeates all aspects of her writing. Aimed directly at human condition, it is antithetical to excesses of sentimentality. This general laughter is most obvious when it occurs on a large scale, as in Parker's Back, when Parker crashes a tractor into only tree in field in which he is working and runs away, or in Country People, when fake bible salesman steals Hulga's wooden leg. Situational laughter is at its most subtle, though, when used in a phrase or even a single line. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, grandmother offers spiritual advice to Misfit while his band of men is killing her family. If you would pray, old lady said, Jesus would help you.(3) Such situational laughter in O'Connor's work is always anti-hierarchical. In contrast to laughter that puts somebody down, it embraces entire situation of humanity. This umbrella of laughter spans even most serious moments in her work and thus treats everyone and everything as on same level; there is nothing above it--not religion and certainly not O'Connor herself. An example of laughter aimed at situation, tellingly written at a time when O'Connor's own health was rapidly deteriorating, occurs in The Enduring Chill: You've got to face facts: Asbury can't write so he gets sick. He's going to be an invalid instead of an artist. Do you know what he needs? No, his mother said. Two or three shock treatments, Mary George said. Get that artist business out of his head once and for all. (CW, 563) This umbrella of abusive and accepting laughter, under which many different tones of laughter operate, is one of structures O'Connor uses to break with sentimental realism. It is an extremely important textual move that precludes reader identification. We are all separate individuals, but we all sit in same boat. O'Connor also does not insist that her laughter remain positive. The joyous social laughter employed by medieval explorers of grotesque such as Rabelais and celebrated by Mikhail Bakhtin is out of place in modern world.(4) O'Connor's laughter is accepting in that it allows a look at individual in his or her entirety; and it is abusive in its transgression of what is considered socially proper. Although transgressing boundaries is in itself important, textual strategy of abuse is significant because it allows O'Connor to shift a reader's perspective away from habitual sentimental realism. O'Connor is thus able to deal with difficult subject matter such as racism, human deformity, and aggressive ignorance in ways other than those socially prescribed. Her work is free to explore images and thoughts that are inaccessible under restraints imposed by serious culture. In contrast to O'Connor's transgressive situational laughter, her characters are strongly developed with well-defined voices and specific boundaries. …