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The Revelatory Body: Theology as Inductive Art
Argues that theology can respond faithfully to the living God only by paying due attention to human bodily experience
Scripture points to the human body and lived experience as the preeminent arena of God's continuing revelation in the world, says Luke Timothy Johnson. Attentively discerning the manifestations of God's Spirit in and through the body is essential for theology to recover its nature as an inductive art rather than — as traditionally conceived — a deductive science.
Willingness to risk engaging actual human situations — as opposed to abstract conceptualizations of those situations — is required of the theologian, Johnson argues. He celebrates the intimations of divine presence and power in such human experiences as play, pain, pleasure, work, and aging, showing how theology can respond faithfully to the living God only by paying due attention to human bodily experience.
Scripture points to the human body and lived experience as the preeminent arena of God's continuing revelation in the world, says Luke Timothy Johnson. Attentively discerning the manifestations of God's Spirit in and through the body is essential for theology to recover its nature as an inductive art rather than — as traditionally conceived — a deductive science.
Willingness to risk engaging actual human situations — as opposed to abstract conceptualizations of those situations — is required of the theologian, Johnson argues. He celebrates the intimations of divine presence and power in such human experiences as play, pain, pleasure, work, and aging, showing how theology can respond faithfully to the living God only by paying due attention to human bodily experience.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 2015
20 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Luke Timothy Johnson
86 books69 followersLuke Timothy Johnson is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James.
Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 4, 2021
God but Not as We Know Her
For those of us who find themselves in opposition to the ideology of power inherent in much Christian theology, Luke Timothy Johnson, an eminent Christian theologian, has written a remarkable book. His thesis is incontrovertible, that is, that divine revelation, no matter how such is defined, must be channelled through human beings. In this sense, the human body is the instrument of revelation and its interpretations in creeds and commentaries.
This simple premise - that our ideas about God must be articulations of human experiences - has profound implications when taken seriously. For a start it implies that theology is, only can be, an attempt to capture in language the spiritual and divine, those things that transcend rational thought but which are nevertheless real to those who experience them. Theology, that is, is per force inductive, as are the fundamental scriptures on which it is based.
Perhaps more significantly, theology and its associated creeds and commentaries become idolatrous when their inductive character is ignored. They then transform from an attempt to communicate experience into a statement of required belief. At that point, they have become instruments of institutional power rather than expressions of faith.
Johnson is a serious and committed Catholic who has written some of the best biblical and credal commentaries in existence. In The Revelatory Body, he has taken very careful aim at those who mis-use scripture and theological tradition to further an agenda of political power rather than of religious truth. This includes a former pope, John Paul II, and his views on sexual morality, which Johnson finds deplorable in his selective use of scripture.
Johnson leaves much unsaid and unresolved, among which, whose experiences 'count' in theology, the place of 'privilege' when it comes to scriptural and credal texts, and the way in which diverse expressions of belief can be synthesized into anything coherent. Nevertheless, The Revelatory Body has the potential to open a new debate in Christian theology. Who knows, such a debate might even result in a new revelation.
For those of us who find themselves in opposition to the ideology of power inherent in much Christian theology, Luke Timothy Johnson, an eminent Christian theologian, has written a remarkable book. His thesis is incontrovertible, that is, that divine revelation, no matter how such is defined, must be channelled through human beings. In this sense, the human body is the instrument of revelation and its interpretations in creeds and commentaries.
This simple premise - that our ideas about God must be articulations of human experiences - has profound implications when taken seriously. For a start it implies that theology is, only can be, an attempt to capture in language the spiritual and divine, those things that transcend rational thought but which are nevertheless real to those who experience them. Theology, that is, is per force inductive, as are the fundamental scriptures on which it is based.
Perhaps more significantly, theology and its associated creeds and commentaries become idolatrous when their inductive character is ignored. They then transform from an attempt to communicate experience into a statement of required belief. At that point, they have become instruments of institutional power rather than expressions of faith.
Johnson is a serious and committed Catholic who has written some of the best biblical and credal commentaries in existence. In The Revelatory Body, he has taken very careful aim at those who mis-use scripture and theological tradition to further an agenda of political power rather than of religious truth. This includes a former pope, John Paul II, and his views on sexual morality, which Johnson finds deplorable in his selective use of scripture.
Johnson leaves much unsaid and unresolved, among which, whose experiences 'count' in theology, the place of 'privilege' when it comes to scriptural and credal texts, and the way in which diverse expressions of belief can be synthesized into anything coherent. Nevertheless, The Revelatory Body has the potential to open a new debate in Christian theology. Who knows, such a debate might even result in a new revelation.
January 8, 2016
Brilliant and original. A valuable contribution to a much needed area of theological reflection. Highly recommended. The chapter on aging was particularly moving and insightful.
October 12, 2015
This is an extraordinary collection of essays by a first rate scholar and theologian. Johnson argues that "theology must always begin and always find renewal, not with words found in texts, but with the experience of actual human bodies." He does not abandon scripture or the creeds but rather seeks to enliven both the reading and interpretation of sacred texts by paying careful attention to the presence and power of God in actual experiences.
This process of discernment is necessary for theology to be engaged with the living God rather than enclosed by idolatry of words without life. Theology according to Johnson must be an inductive art perceiving the Spirit of God disclosed in human bodies. He probes this conviction by exploring the body in play and in work, the sexual body, the aging body and the exceptional body. There is here a fresh honesty about both the limits of scripture and the depth of human experience that remains as mysterious as the living God. Johnson is a brave and wise scholar; his enormous gifts are displayed here with humility and honesty. He believes that God is a living God whose presence and power is revealed in bodily experience. In the end his argument is a challenging invitation to to discern this God in all experiences.
This process of discernment is necessary for theology to be engaged with the living God rather than enclosed by idolatry of words without life. Theology according to Johnson must be an inductive art perceiving the Spirit of God disclosed in human bodies. He probes this conviction by exploring the body in play and in work, the sexual body, the aging body and the exceptional body. There is here a fresh honesty about both the limits of scripture and the depth of human experience that remains as mysterious as the living God. Johnson is a brave and wise scholar; his enormous gifts are displayed here with humility and honesty. He believes that God is a living God whose presence and power is revealed in bodily experience. In the end his argument is a challenging invitation to to discern this God in all experiences.
September 24, 2017
Why do I read books about theology I sometimes ask myself? They often give a different slant on matters we seldom think about, or take for granted. Theology, along with science and philosophy, is ultimately about the meaning of humanity and its place in the universe. It comes at it from a different perspective, that of the nature of "God" and religious beliefs that grow out of that. Johnson emphasizes "inductive" in his title ,appropriate as he begins with our experiences and works from there, instead of, as theologians so often do, moving deductively from first premises, usually Biblically based.
The problem with this deductive approach, Johnson writes, is that there are many areas of human existence that are barely mentioned in the Bible. He makes the point that the words of Scripture and statements of creed "can shift subtly from participating in the process of revelation to the claim of being revelation". I take that to mean that Biblical words, and statements of belief ("creeds") are a guide to human conduct, and always needs further interpretation, rather than words that give definitive answers. Johnson is aware, I'm sure, that he'll be charged with relativism, and he has to explain how Biblical concepts always guide us, even though we could seemingly do just as well using our natural reasoning powers.
Johnson contends that too often Scripture is viewed as a kind of "medicine" that we take to correct and cure our human experience of its bad habits and evil ways. Rather, he'd like to see human experience thought of as illuminating and extending the meaning of Scripture. None of this is easy to explain, but the historical background he provides is helpful. Early Christian thinkers tended to make categorical statements about what they thought the entrance into history of the God/man (Jesus) meant. These grew into creedal statements like the Apostle's Creed, and from here on Christian theologians, particularly Catholic ones, used the Scriptures as proofs for these statements.
The difficulty with this, as Johnson sees it, is that the Old and New Testaments were never meant to "construct a philosophy of life built on rational premises, they testify to the presence of the Living God in human existence that challenges all rational premises." Each person works out that "challenge" in his own creative way. The influence of cripture is part of that working out, but does not provide answers all by itself.
That process is always a mysterious one. An example of it occurs, of course, in human suffering - it is a universal fact of life. Negro spirituals are one example of the capacity of the human spirit to overcome such debasement and turn it into art and even prayer. Who could have predicted that transformation? Other areas of basic human experience about which Scripture says very little specifically are play, work, sexual pleasure, and aging.
Johnson has no answers for how the spirit of a "livng God" could transform and dignify these activities into something spiritually fulfilling, but what he argues is that theologians would do well to look for clues from basic human experience and use Scripture to contribute to the discussion, rather than assuming that Scripture has all the answers.
The problem with this deductive approach, Johnson writes, is that there are many areas of human existence that are barely mentioned in the Bible. He makes the point that the words of Scripture and statements of creed "can shift subtly from participating in the process of revelation to the claim of being revelation". I take that to mean that Biblical words, and statements of belief ("creeds") are a guide to human conduct, and always needs further interpretation, rather than words that give definitive answers. Johnson is aware, I'm sure, that he'll be charged with relativism, and he has to explain how Biblical concepts always guide us, even though we could seemingly do just as well using our natural reasoning powers.
Johnson contends that too often Scripture is viewed as a kind of "medicine" that we take to correct and cure our human experience of its bad habits and evil ways. Rather, he'd like to see human experience thought of as illuminating and extending the meaning of Scripture. None of this is easy to explain, but the historical background he provides is helpful. Early Christian thinkers tended to make categorical statements about what they thought the entrance into history of the God/man (Jesus) meant. These grew into creedal statements like the Apostle's Creed, and from here on Christian theologians, particularly Catholic ones, used the Scriptures as proofs for these statements.
The difficulty with this, as Johnson sees it, is that the Old and New Testaments were never meant to "construct a philosophy of life built on rational premises, they testify to the presence of the Living God in human existence that challenges all rational premises." Each person works out that "challenge" in his own creative way. The influence of cripture is part of that working out, but does not provide answers all by itself.
That process is always a mysterious one. An example of it occurs, of course, in human suffering - it is a universal fact of life. Negro spirituals are one example of the capacity of the human spirit to overcome such debasement and turn it into art and even prayer. Who could have predicted that transformation? Other areas of basic human experience about which Scripture says very little specifically are play, work, sexual pleasure, and aging.
Johnson has no answers for how the spirit of a "livng God" could transform and dignify these activities into something spiritually fulfilling, but what he argues is that theologians would do well to look for clues from basic human experience and use Scripture to contribute to the discussion, rather than assuming that Scripture has all the answers.
September 10, 2017
Johnson begins the book:
Two simple convictions animate this exercise in theology. The first is that the human body is the preeminent arena for God's revelation in the world, the medium through which God's Holy Spirit is most clearly expressed. God's self-disclosure in the world is thus continuous and constant. The second conviction is that the task of theology is the discernment of God's self-disclosure in the world through the medium of the body. Therefore, theology is necessarily an inductive art rather than a deductive science.
With that promising beginning and enticing first chapter the book fails to live up to expectations. It is a thoroughgoing phenomenology of bodily experience, but with little developed theological reflection, in my opinion. For instance, James McClendon places the body first in his theology to much richer effect.
I did appreciate Johnson, a Catholic theologian, entering into a robust discussion of sexuality and gender with a valuable discussion of intersex bodies and what their reality suggests for theology. Again, this is material I've encountered before in queer thinkers, but was refreshing to discover here in Roman Catholic theology.
One of the book's primary aims seems to be a criticism of John Paul II's writing on the body and sexuality. Had I known that the book had that more limited focus, I probably wouldn't have read it.
Two simple convictions animate this exercise in theology. The first is that the human body is the preeminent arena for God's revelation in the world, the medium through which God's Holy Spirit is most clearly expressed. God's self-disclosure in the world is thus continuous and constant. The second conviction is that the task of theology is the discernment of God's self-disclosure in the world through the medium of the body. Therefore, theology is necessarily an inductive art rather than a deductive science.
With that promising beginning and enticing first chapter the book fails to live up to expectations. It is a thoroughgoing phenomenology of bodily experience, but with little developed theological reflection, in my opinion. For instance, James McClendon places the body first in his theology to much richer effect.
I did appreciate Johnson, a Catholic theologian, entering into a robust discussion of sexuality and gender with a valuable discussion of intersex bodies and what their reality suggests for theology. Again, this is material I've encountered before in queer thinkers, but was refreshing to discover here in Roman Catholic theology.
One of the book's primary aims seems to be a criticism of John Paul II's writing on the body and sexuality. Had I known that the book had that more limited focus, I probably wouldn't have read it.
November 4, 2019
Wonderfully insightful. Invaluable to what it takes to truly live the gospel and do theological thinking without falling into the error of over-reliance on theoretical concepts.
March 3, 2016
If God is not dead, then God is acting in the present time.
Johnson, New Testament scholar, shows how the NT was the account of how God was acting in a particular time and place, which account is still a lens (but not a replacement) of God's actions among people today.
He demonstrates an inductive method of theology. It seems to me that this method is intuitive, if somewhat inchoate; it is what we do when we are engaged in meditation and personal prayer. Making it explicit is helpful and affirming. Johnson considers the action of God in play, pain, work, pleasure, aging, the 'exceptional body', and the passions.
I like that he says theology is an art, not a science, which I find both liberating and challenging. The process of discernment is live, ongoing, and open-ended.
Johnson, New Testament scholar, shows how the NT was the account of how God was acting in a particular time and place, which account is still a lens (but not a replacement) of God's actions among people today.
He demonstrates an inductive method of theology. It seems to me that this method is intuitive, if somewhat inchoate; it is what we do when we are engaged in meditation and personal prayer. Making it explicit is helpful and affirming. Johnson considers the action of God in play, pain, work, pleasure, aging, the 'exceptional body', and the passions.
I like that he says theology is an art, not a science, which I find both liberating and challenging. The process of discernment is live, ongoing, and open-ended.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews