Skip to main content

Web Content Display Web Content Display

Research

Web Content Display Web Content Display

Body in Religious and Spiritual Practices

Body in Religious and Spiritual Practices

Body in Religious and Spiritual Practices [Ciało w praktykach religijnych i duchowych] – The Polish Journal of the Art and Culture 4 (1/2013), eds. A. Świerzowska, P. Tendera.

The authors of the present tome approach numerous issues concerning the body in religious and spiritual practices such as:

  • How does religious thought and practice construe an understanding of the human body, give meaning and define its functions?
  • How does religious thought and practice transform the human body and what is the purpose of these endeavours?
  • What is the relation between the spirit and the body as the object of these practices?
  • How do religious manipulations on the body turn it into a medium for transmitting particular contents?
  • How did religious/spiritual means of using the body change throughout history?
  • What were its functions and purposes in the past and present?
  • What were the result of implanting these practices on foreign ground (as was the case with the Eastern traditions transmitted to the West)?
  • What is the fate of these practices in the global postmodern consumerist reality?

These and other more tradition-specific issues are approached from a variety of academic perspectives and by means of numerous academic tools at the disposal of modern humanities. Thus, it was possible to present the issue of these religious and spiritual practices concerning the body in a comprehensive and multidimensional manner. Significantly, the authors of particular papers reflect on various traditions thus making it clear to the reader that – as put by Wojciech Klimczyk – the body "can be increased" and that it is "marked with the potencies of an unlimited interpretation".

The tome is available here.