Abstract
The writing of Our Bodies Are Selves is styled as personal reflections of writers and scholars, people of faith. Stories are shared of disability, aging, premature birth. Practices of the church and its members, such as negative treatment of those of LGBTI identity, are questioned and possibilities for transformation through embodied encounter and human relationship are offered. These reflections do not quite cohere in a unified discussion developed across the whole book. It reads more like an edited volume, rather than a co-written book. The chapters could be read in random order, for the most part, after reading the chapters that introduce the authors. These personal stories do establish a foundation of experience as the source of wisdom and insight in the matters for discussion throughout the rest of the book.
While the individual contributions may stand somewhat alone, the content of discussion, affirming the holistic human being, as opposed to a prevalent dualism that perpetuates a harmful negativity towards the human body, is reflected in the approach to the discussion. The authors demonstrate the value of intuition as knowledge without making any explicit claim for it; rather, they speak of intuition unapologetically, and allow experience to speak for itself. Weaving scholarship into their essays, both propositional and participatory knowledge are affirmed through the practice of these authors. If this book does nothing else—and it does much to spark potential for conversations about the fulness of human being—it presents an affirmation of the breadth of the integrated diversity of human being and understanding.
These authors reclaim the wholeness of a human being as a bodyself in a book that models a reclamation of the authority of human experience in making meaning. As a conversation starter, this book should ignite imaginations so that others will continue to explore the wholeness of our human being, in light of, and to enlighten, our understanding of Christian spirituality and our traditions of faith.