CONWAY, Ark. (December 6, 2016) – Hendrix College religious studies professor Dr. John Sanders recently released a new book titled
Theology
in the Flesh: How Embodiment and Culture Shape the Way We Think about Morality,
Truth, and God
(Fortress Press, 2016).
Theology
in the Flesh book uses cognitive linguistics to explore the incredibly rich ways our conceptual tools, derived from embodied life and culture, shape the way we understand Christian teachings and practices.
“Human embodiment plays a crucial role in our cognitive processes, including our thinking about God and the Christian life,” said Sanders. “We use figurative language, particularly metaphors, in order to understand most of our really important religious ideas.”
“Americans commonly think of God as either an authoritarian or nurturing parent and these two models lead to vastly different doctrinal and moral stances,” he said. “Conceptual differences between cultures can lead Christian communities to give different meanings to biblical texts. Christians
can legitimately expect widespread agreement on some general teachings, and then, cultural variation on most topics.”
“Christians have principled ways to revise or even reject biblical teachings and should exercise humility in knowledge claims concerning a wide variety of topics,” he added.
“John's new book breaks new ground for Christians who seek to live from the richness of biblical traditions while avoiding any hint of fundamentalism or meanness of spirit,” said Hendrix religious studies professor Dr. Jay McDaniel. “It shows how concepts important
in Christian theology – God, truth, sin, salvation, and community, for example – do not drop from heaven, but instead emerge from our bodily interactions with the world, as rendered into metaphors which guide thought, feeling, and action.”
“With its explorations of metaphorical language, the book naturally leads its readers into a spirit of dialogue, openness, and humility,” McDaniel said. “At Hendrix we are quite fortunate to have a scholar of such renown, developing a message of such importance, and
sharing it with our local community even as, thankfully, his ideas are being heard across the nations and the world.”
Sanders is the author of The
God Who Risks (2007) and No Other
Name (1992) and coauthor of The
Openness of God (1994).
Listen to an interview with Dr. Sanders on the
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast.
About
Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change
Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.