The Broken Body - (Challenges in Contemporary Theology) by Sarah Coakley (Paperback)

About the Book

"'Who, or why, or which or what is the Akond of SWAT?', wrote Edward Lear in one of his more elusive nonsense poems. No less elusive, however, is the somewhat parallel question: Who, or why, or which, or what, is the 'risen Jesus'? The opening chapter of this book will attempt to probe this misleadingly simple theological question afresh. In particular, it will propose a systematic solution to the task of analysing how historical, dogmatic, and what we might call 'spiritual', or 'ascetic', approaches to the quest for Jesus's identity might relate, and mutually inform one another. At the same time I shall begin to ask where the appropriately 'apophatic' dimensions of the task of Christology might also lie. The task is a curiously complicated one, as we shall see. Not only is there still great difficulty, even after two hundred years of 'historical Jesus research', in bringing modern historical/critical discussions about the identity of 'Jesus' into clear relation to the older credal, dogmatic reflection on his 'person'; but still less is there a consistent confidence manifested in contemporary systematic theology, as I see it, about the means and possibiity of a direct relation to the 'risen Jesus' now, about what this claim might mean, and about how the probative recognition of him might occur. Indeed, we might say that this last, pressingly existential, question has been all-but occluded - embarrassedly repressed, even - in the era of obsession about the 'historical' identity of Jesus"--

Book Synopsis

A fascinating collection of essays exploring a fresh contemporary approach to the person and doctrine of Jesus Christ

How should Christians think about the person of Jesus Christ today? In this volume, Sarah Coakley argues that this question has to be 'broken open' in new and unexpected ways: by an awareness of the deep spiritual demands of the christological task and its strikingly 'apophatic' dimensions; by a probing of the paradoxical ways in which Judaism and Christianity are drawn together in Christ, even by those issues which seem to 'break' them most decisively apart; and by an exploration of the mode of Christ's presence in the eucharist, with its intensification, 'breaking' and re-gathering of human desires. In this sequel to her celebrated earlier volume of essays, Powers and Submissions, Coakley returns to its unifying theme of divine power and contemplative submission, and weaves a new web of christological outcomes which remain replete with controversial implications for gender, spirituality and ethics.

The Broken Body will be of interest to those working in the fields of systematic theology, philosophy of religion, early Christian studies, Jewish/Christian relations, and feminist and gender theory.

"Fusing biblical and patristic theology, analytic philosophy, and spiritual tradition, Sarah Coakley has produced a fascinating, inspiring, and compelling account of Christ's identity, and its importance for questions of life."
--Professor Mark Wynn, University of Oxford

"Coakley argues that good Christology arises only from intellectual and spiritual postures learnt by encountering Christ openly. This volume subtly and powerfully facilitates such encounter, with God and, in him, with our neighbours, especially the Jewish people."
--Professor Judith Wolfe, University of St. Andrews

"Everything we have come to expect from Sarah Coakley is here in this extraordinary collection: wonderful clarity; startling and fruitful comparisons, within and beyond the theological canon; a brisk defiance of feminist conventions that in turn sharpens and deepens feminist analysis; a resistance to cheap theological certainties; and an abiding faithfulness, anchored in Christ, borne aloft by the Spirit. Christology is here shown to embrace abjection and jouissance, to advocate sacrifice that is itself the end of patriarchal violence, and to demand a eucharistic sharing that is incomplete without solidarity to the outcast and the poor, themselves the face of the living Christ. In these essays Coakley exemplifies the semiotic richness of priest and scholar, a breaking open of theological reserves that will transgress, startle, renew, instruct. This is sacrifice, re-made."
--Professor Katherine Sonderegger, Virginia Theological Seminary

From the Back Cover

"Fusing biblical and patristic theology, analytic philosophy, and spiritual tradition, Sarah Coakley has produced a fascinating, inspiring, and compelling account of Christ's identity, and its importance for questions of life."
--PROFESSOR MARK WYNN, University of Oxford

"Coakley argues that good Christology arises only from intellectual and spiritual postures learnt by encountering Christ openly. This volume subtly and powerfully facilitates such encounter, with God and, in him, with our neighbours, especially the Jewish people."
--PROFESSOR JUDITH WOLFE, University of St. Andrews

"Everything we have come to expect from Sarah Coakley is here in this extraordinary volume of wonderful clarity: Christology is here shown to embrace abjection and jouissance, to advocate sacrifice that is itself the end of patriarchal violence. This is sacrifice, re-made."
--PROFESSOR KATHERINE SONDEREGGER, Virginia Theological Seminary

How should Christians think about the person of Jesus Christ today? In this volume, Sarah Coakley argues that this question has to be 'broken open' in new and unexpected ways: by an awareness of the deep spiritual demands of the christological task and its strikingly 'apophatic' dimensions; by a probing of the paradoxical ways in which Judaism and Christianity are drawn together in Christ, even by those issues which seem to 'break' them most decisively apart; and by an exploration of the mode of Christ's presence in the eucharist, with its intensification, 'breaking' and re-gathering of human desires. In this sequel to her celebrated earlier volume of essays, Powers and Submissions, Coakley returns to its unifying theme of divine power and contemplative submission, and weaves a new web of christological outcomes which remain replete with controversial implications for gender, spirituality and ethics.

The Broken Body will be of interest to those working in the fields of systematic theology, philosophy of religion, early Christian studies, Jewish/Christian relations, and feminist and gender theory.

Review Quotes

"This is a book well worth feasting upon, and it indeed is a feast readers will find here, so abundant they will be returning for seconds and thirds if I could put it that way." - Anglican and Episcopal History - Volume 93 - December 2024 - Number 4

"Those who teach or write about Coakley will want to read the whole book. Those who find her a source of pleasure or inspiration will want to use the table of contents to read selected essays." - Modern Theology Month 2025, DOI:10.1111/moth.12976

"This is a remarkable set of essays that perform what they argue as stale topics are broken open and given new direction." - Journal of Anglican Studies, Published online 19 December 2024

"Sarah Coakley's characteristically layered and learned inquiry into Christology uses brokenness as the central thread to stitch together accounts of often disparate doctrinal inquiries: the cross, liturgy, and asceticism." - The Christian Century, February 2025, Volume 142, Issue #2

About the Author

Sarah Coakley, FBA is the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity emerita, University of Cambridge, and an honorary Professor of St Andrews University and of the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne and Rome). Amongst her previous publications are Powers and Submissions; God, Sexuality and the Self; The New Asceticism; and the Gifford Lectures of 2012, Sacrifice Regained: Evolution, Cooperation and God. She is currently at work on the remaining volumes of her systematic theology.