This thesis explores how female embodiment has been conceived of in Christianity, extending from
the patristic era – with its intermingling of Greco-Roman and Jewish conceptions of the body and
woman – to the present day and the current debates around the distinction between sex and gender.
Examining how women both presented and were represented in historical, theoretical and medical
discourse, it argues that a continuing theme of self-discipline of the female form through asceticism –
notably through fasting – is evident throughout this period. This thesis proposes that the constant of
asceticism, what is termed the ‘ascetic impulse’ – can be traced throughout in such apparently
disparate forms as the virile virgin of the early church through to the secular anorectic of today.
It argues that such ascetic acts, rather than being understood as purely self-destructive or wholly
attributable to the patriarchal or misogynistic tendencies inherent in Christianity, point to a desire to
establish a positive sense of being embodied as a woman in the world, and is emblematic of the highly
contested nature of female embodiment, which has been read almost exclusively in terms of the erotic
and the reproductive.
The thesis demonstrates that despite Christianity putting the body at the centre of its theology –
through the doctrines of imago Dei, incarnation, and resurrection – no theology of the female body as
such exists. Engaging critically with catholic anthropology, feminist perspectives and queer theory, it
proposes an outline of a sacramental ontology of the female body. It concludes with a brief
discussion of the contribution this theology could make to contemporary discussions of the female
body.

The Core of Our Desire: Re-imaging the Trinity

Female embodiment and the ascetic impulse: in search of a theology of the female body

God, Sexuality and the Self is a new venture in systematic theology. Sarah Coakley invites the reader to re-conceive the relation of sexual desire and the desire for God and - through the lens of prayer practice - to chart the intrinsic connection of this relation to a theology of the Trinity. The goal is to integrate the demanding ascetical undertaking of prayer with the recovery of lost and neglected materials from the tradition and thus to reanimate doctrinal reflection both imaginatively and spiritually. What emerges is a vision of human longing for the triune God which is both edgy and compelling: Coakley's theologie totale questions standard shibboleths on 'sexuality' and 'gender' and thereby suggests a way beyond current destructive impasses in the churches. The book is clearly and accessibly written and will be of great interest to all scholars and students of theology.

/pdf/god-sexuality-and-the-self-an-essay-on-the-trinity-4hgdlgm3yq.pdf

God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity'

OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico

/pdf/there-is-a-threeness-about-you-trinitarian-images-of-god-dpiem9gvoy.pdf

"There is a Threeness About You": Trinitarian Images of God, Self, and Community Among Medieval Women Visionaries

Can we construct a practical relational ecclesiology that has real impact in the life of the community of believers? What kind of ecclesiology would support the reality of church life in an urban deprived context? This article seeks to uncover a basis for research that will enable a transformative conversation between experience and contemporary ecclesiology. It introduces the argument that social models of the Trinity offer promise for ecclesiology, but also that Trinitarian ecclesiologies do not serve real churches well. It proposes that for a relational ecclesiology to be genuinely useful, especially in a deprived area, it needs to be “three-dimensional.” To be useful, ecclesiology needs to provide a description of an authentic church that takes the material and spiritual aspects of church life into account, as well as the interpersonal. The argument is eclectic, employing ancient theological concepts such as perichoresis and vestigia trinitatis, plus contemporary developments in the social and physica...

background

In Three Dimensions

In the last three chapters I have taken the reader on diverse ‘foraging raids’ into the history and contemporary practice of trinitarianism, with the aid of the interdisciplinary techniques of a theologie totale , and with the special impetus thereby to search for doctrine’s lost coins in dark and neglected corners. I have tried above all to demonstrate how deeply trinitarian conceptuality ‘bites’ in unexpected places, how strangely it permeates even the most basic human preoccupations with sex, power, pain, death, and primary parental relationships; and, at the very least, what I hope will have emerged from these explorations of text, fieldwork, and art is some substantiation of my claim that no doctrine of the Trinity, as charter and paradigm of perfect relationship , can be completely innocent of political, familial, and sexual associations. Whatever the abstract form of trinitiarian ontological speculation in its purest conceptual and theological expression, its implications reach all the way down, personally and culturally, and spiral outwards in ways often beyond the control of ecclesiastical authorities. But that is not all; for other, doubtless more contentious, sub-theses have been at work in what I have said so far. There has been a sociological hypothesis about ‘church’-type Christianity’s need for a subversive element within its bounds if trinitarianism is to be perennially reinvigorated by response to the Spirit; and a concomitant hypothesis about the (relative) suppression of a ‘prayer-based’, or ‘incorporative’, doctrine of the Trinity within the ‘church’ type, for fear of its liberating or potentially disordering implications.

God, Sexuality, and the Self: ‘Batter My Heart’: reorientations of classic trinitarian thought

Study of nature of deities & religious beliefs