In yesterday's post I discussed what I've described as "Incarnational ambivalence" in my research, a gnostic anxiety that, as I describe in Unclean, pervades Christian experience. Throughout Christian history, the faithful have experienced the body with a profound sense of unease. The body is filthy and animalistic. Worse, the body is a source of wickedness and defilement, the location of lust, craving, and desire. Especially sexual desire. So there is a chronic temptation to deny, mortify, or flee from the body into a hyper-spiritualized experience.
Fleeing the Body
Fleeing the Body
Fleeing the Body
In yesterday's post I discussed what I've described as "Incarnational ambivalence" in my research, a gnostic anxiety that, as I describe in Unclean, pervades Christian experience. Throughout Christian history, the faithful have experienced the body with a profound sense of unease. The body is filthy and animalistic. Worse, the body is a source of wickedness and defilement, the location of lust, craving, and desire. Especially sexual desire. So there is a chronic temptation to deny, mortify, or flee from the body into a hyper-spiritualized experience.