Theology of the body
1) Why did complete sexual renunciation appeal to some early Christians? What sorts of justification did the Encratites give for this practise (experiential and theological)?
Many of the Gentile converts, after their conversion and baptism, retained a Greek philosophical understanding of the cosmos, and of the body itself. From their perspective there was a hierarchy of being in which spirit, or pneuma, was assumed to be higher than matter, or hyle. The elite, higher class, educated (male) Roman citizens already possessed an understanding of the spiritual as superior to matter. This understanding of the body as lower they then transferred into their Christian faith.
Many of the Gentile converts, after their conversion and baptism, retained a Greek philosophical understanding of the cosmos, and of the body itself. From their perspective there was a hierarchy of being in which spirit, or pneuma, was assumed to be higher than matter, or hyle. The elite, higher class, educated (male) Roman citizens already possessed an understanding of the spiritual as superior to matter. This understanding of the body as lower they then transferred into their Christian faith.
posted by Velvet @ 5:32 PM
3 Comments:
At 5:20 AM,
John Paraiso said…
A woman's view on Christian theology....Very interesting.
At 3:22 AM,
Silabella said…
That's an interesting point - did the crossover in Greek understanding then have something to do with the denigration of the body in subsequent centuries? And tying in also with perhaps the use still of the man:female, spirit:matter dichotomy. coolness.
At 12:43 PM,
Velvet said…
I think it did. That, and perhaps also the Gnostic influences, with the 2 gods, and the evil god (ie the god of the Old Testament) being the source/creator of all matter, matter also being evil for the Gnostic.
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