The body, in its many facets, is the theme of this essay. The study of the body has received a lo... more The body, in its many facets, is the theme of this essay. The study of the body has received a lot of attention in current theological and philosophical debate. In this essay some of these con-temporaneous discussions are put into conversation with the thought of Catholic public intel-lectual Ivan Illich (1926-2002). What kinds of shifts are possible in, what the author calls, the ‘terrain of the body’ when the iconoclastic and deeply modernity sceptic thought of Illich is placed alongside thinker such as Judith Butler and Shoshana Zuboff and their respective recep-tion in Swedish theology and applied ethics?
Illich thought, which hinges on the Incarnation and is thoroughly formed by Thomas Aquinas, challenges modernity’s institutionalization, abstraction and medicalization of the body. The realism of Illich is in stark contrast with what could, from a theological perspective, be understood as Butler’s nominalism. Illich radical critique of modern institutions also poses a challenge for thinkers such as Butler but also e.g. Swedish theologian Ola Sigurdson. These thinkers tends to keep their critique on a discursive plane but seldom venture into specific social criticism. Illich critique does, however, marry quite well with Zuboff’s of surveillance capitalism and it’s ten-dency to reduce all being to data. The author of the essay characterizes this tendency as the new univocity of being. To struggle against this univocity is to struggle for a (relatively) free body, the body that the Swedish ethicists in the survey also wants to defend. A struggle that might have dire consequences for the powerless discipline of theology.
The essay also suggests that the role of the Church could be considered to be working as the exegete of the body; joining the singular body with the narrative body of Jesus Christ and thus thrusting it away from the atomization and the reduction of modernity. It also suggests the role of the Church in forming an eschatological body culture, living in hope rather than expectation.
Keywords: Ivan Illich, Body, Incarnation, Social criticism, Univocity of Being, Shoshana Zub-off, Judith Butler, Ola Sigurdson, Joseph Sverker, Göran Collste, Anders Nordgren
This hagiographical study deals with Christian saints, in the broad sense of the word, who, in t... more This hagiographical study deals with Christian saints, in the broad sense of the word, who, in the pursuit of following Christ, have transgressed the will of their biological family. By employing the historical narrative and theory of the philosopher Charles Taylor and the sociological theory of David Martin the question is asked if these hagiographical cases should be seen as radical breaks with the social imaginaries of their respective times or whether they rather should be seen as in line with tendencies toward individualization and a more disembedded worldview. The three saints surveyed are Clare of Assisi, the Anabaptist martyr Elizabeth Dirks and the founder of the Swedish Free Baptist Movement Helge Åkeson. From a constructive theological standpoint and in line with the historical study, the thesis also wishes to, begin to make reflections on Christian discipleship as a theological locus.
The study shows that the saints, as presented in the hagiographical material, can be said to destroy their social world, in the sense that in not following the wish of their families they tend to disrupt a world where political power and personal relations are closely intertwined. On the other hand, their wish to follow Christ also, unwittingly, secularizes the world in that it makes the modern, disembedded individual a possibility. Yet, when breaking with a social world where the political and the personal are not differentiated something of the personal is preserved within the communities of the saints, there is a renovating tendency to the old social world.
For a radical discipleship in a Western European context, the essay suggests a re-evaluation of sectarianism, a starting point to think about God’s activity in a secular age, and a suggestion to return to determinative personal relations as a way to resist the impersonal order of modern society.
Key words: Hagiography, Saints, Discipleship, David Martin, Charles Taylor, Secularization, World, Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth Dirks, Helge Åkeson
I denna lilla essä beskriver jag ett alternativt sätt att se på religionsundervisning i skolan. E... more I denna lilla essä beskriver jag ett alternativt sätt att se på religionsundervisning i skolan. Ett sätt som är mer baserat på gemenskaper och en postiv religionsfrihet.
The body, in its many facets, is the theme of this essay. The study of the body has received a lo... more The body, in its many facets, is the theme of this essay. The study of the body has received a lot of attention in current theological and philosophical debate. In this essay some of these con-temporaneous discussions are put into conversation with the thought of Catholic public intel-lectual Ivan Illich (1926-2002). What kinds of shifts are possible in, what the author calls, the ‘terrain of the body’ when the iconoclastic and deeply modernity sceptic thought of Illich is placed alongside thinker such as Judith Butler and Shoshana Zuboff and their respective recep-tion in Swedish theology and applied ethics?
Illich thought, which hinges on the Incarnation and is thoroughly formed by Thomas Aquinas, challenges modernity’s institutionalization, abstraction and medicalization of the body. The realism of Illich is in stark contrast with what could, from a theological perspective, be understood as Butler’s nominalism. Illich radical critique of modern institutions also poses a challenge for thinkers such as Butler but also e.g. Swedish theologian Ola Sigurdson. These thinkers tends to keep their critique on a discursive plane but seldom venture into specific social criticism. Illich critique does, however, marry quite well with Zuboff’s of surveillance capitalism and it’s ten-dency to reduce all being to data. The author of the essay characterizes this tendency as the new univocity of being. To struggle against this univocity is to struggle for a (relatively) free body, the body that the Swedish ethicists in the survey also wants to defend. A struggle that might have dire consequences for the powerless discipline of theology.
The essay also suggests that the role of the Church could be considered to be working as the exegete of the body; joining the singular body with the narrative body of Jesus Christ and thus thrusting it away from the atomization and the reduction of modernity. It also suggests the role of the Church in forming an eschatological body culture, living in hope rather than expectation.
Keywords: Ivan Illich, Body, Incarnation, Social criticism, Univocity of Being, Shoshana Zub-off, Judith Butler, Ola Sigurdson, Joseph Sverker, Göran Collste, Anders Nordgren
This hagiographical study deals with Christian saints, in the broad sense of the word, who, in t... more This hagiographical study deals with Christian saints, in the broad sense of the word, who, in the pursuit of following Christ, have transgressed the will of their biological family. By employing the historical narrative and theory of the philosopher Charles Taylor and the sociological theory of David Martin the question is asked if these hagiographical cases should be seen as radical breaks with the social imaginaries of their respective times or whether they rather should be seen as in line with tendencies toward individualization and a more disembedded worldview. The three saints surveyed are Clare of Assisi, the Anabaptist martyr Elizabeth Dirks and the founder of the Swedish Free Baptist Movement Helge Åkeson. From a constructive theological standpoint and in line with the historical study, the thesis also wishes to, begin to make reflections on Christian discipleship as a theological locus.
The study shows that the saints, as presented in the hagiographical material, can be said to destroy their social world, in the sense that in not following the wish of their families they tend to disrupt a world where political power and personal relations are closely intertwined. On the other hand, their wish to follow Christ also, unwittingly, secularizes the world in that it makes the modern, disembedded individual a possibility. Yet, when breaking with a social world where the political and the personal are not differentiated something of the personal is preserved within the communities of the saints, there is a renovating tendency to the old social world.
For a radical discipleship in a Western European context, the essay suggests a re-evaluation of sectarianism, a starting point to think about God’s activity in a secular age, and a suggestion to return to determinative personal relations as a way to resist the impersonal order of modern society.
Key words: Hagiography, Saints, Discipleship, David Martin, Charles Taylor, Secularization, World, Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth Dirks, Helge Åkeson
I denna lilla essä beskriver jag ett alternativt sätt att se på religionsundervisning i skolan. E... more I denna lilla essä beskriver jag ett alternativt sätt att se på religionsundervisning i skolan. Ett sätt som är mer baserat på gemenskaper och en postiv religionsfrihet.
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Illich thought, which hinges on the Incarnation and is thoroughly formed by Thomas Aquinas, challenges modernity’s institutionalization, abstraction and medicalization of the body. The realism of Illich is in stark contrast with what could, from a theological perspective, be understood as Butler’s nominalism. Illich radical critique of modern institutions also poses a challenge for thinkers such as Butler but also e.g. Swedish theologian Ola Sigurdson. These thinkers tends to keep their critique on a discursive plane but seldom venture into specific social criticism. Illich critique does, however, marry quite well with Zuboff’s of surveillance capitalism and it’s ten-dency to reduce all being to data. The author of the essay characterizes this tendency as the new univocity of being. To struggle against this univocity is to struggle for a (relatively) free body, the body that the Swedish ethicists in the survey also wants to defend. A struggle that might have dire consequences for the powerless discipline of theology.
The essay also suggests that the role of the Church could be considered to be working as the exegete of the body; joining the singular body with the narrative body of Jesus Christ and thus thrusting it away from the atomization and the reduction of modernity. It also suggests the role of the Church in forming an eschatological body culture, living in hope rather than expectation.
Keywords: Ivan Illich, Body, Incarnation, Social criticism, Univocity of Being, Shoshana Zub-off, Judith Butler, Ola Sigurdson, Joseph Sverker, Göran Collste, Anders Nordgren
The study shows that the saints, as presented in the hagiographical material, can be said to destroy their social world, in the sense that in not following the wish of their families they tend to disrupt a world where political power and personal relations are closely intertwined. On the other hand, their wish to follow Christ also, unwittingly, secularizes the world in that it makes the modern, disembedded individual a possibility. Yet, when breaking with a social world where the political and the personal are not differentiated something of the personal is preserved within the communities of the saints, there is a renovating tendency to the old social world.
For a radical discipleship in a Western European context, the essay suggests a re-evaluation of sectarianism, a starting point to think about God’s activity in a secular age, and a suggestion to return to determinative personal relations as a way to resist the impersonal order of modern society.
Key words: Hagiography, Saints, Discipleship, David Martin, Charles Taylor, Secularization, World, Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth Dirks, Helge Åkeson
Illich thought, which hinges on the Incarnation and is thoroughly formed by Thomas Aquinas, challenges modernity’s institutionalization, abstraction and medicalization of the body. The realism of Illich is in stark contrast with what could, from a theological perspective, be understood as Butler’s nominalism. Illich radical critique of modern institutions also poses a challenge for thinkers such as Butler but also e.g. Swedish theologian Ola Sigurdson. These thinkers tends to keep their critique on a discursive plane but seldom venture into specific social criticism. Illich critique does, however, marry quite well with Zuboff’s of surveillance capitalism and it’s ten-dency to reduce all being to data. The author of the essay characterizes this tendency as the new univocity of being. To struggle against this univocity is to struggle for a (relatively) free body, the body that the Swedish ethicists in the survey also wants to defend. A struggle that might have dire consequences for the powerless discipline of theology.
The essay also suggests that the role of the Church could be considered to be working as the exegete of the body; joining the singular body with the narrative body of Jesus Christ and thus thrusting it away from the atomization and the reduction of modernity. It also suggests the role of the Church in forming an eschatological body culture, living in hope rather than expectation.
Keywords: Ivan Illich, Body, Incarnation, Social criticism, Univocity of Being, Shoshana Zub-off, Judith Butler, Ola Sigurdson, Joseph Sverker, Göran Collste, Anders Nordgren
The study shows that the saints, as presented in the hagiographical material, can be said to destroy their social world, in the sense that in not following the wish of their families they tend to disrupt a world where political power and personal relations are closely intertwined. On the other hand, their wish to follow Christ also, unwittingly, secularizes the world in that it makes the modern, disembedded individual a possibility. Yet, when breaking with a social world where the political and the personal are not differentiated something of the personal is preserved within the communities of the saints, there is a renovating tendency to the old social world.
For a radical discipleship in a Western European context, the essay suggests a re-evaluation of sectarianism, a starting point to think about God’s activity in a secular age, and a suggestion to return to determinative personal relations as a way to resist the impersonal order of modern society.
Key words: Hagiography, Saints, Discipleship, David Martin, Charles Taylor, Secularization, World, Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth Dirks, Helge Åkeson