Beautiful and sexy

I recently started an absolutely fascinating book, namely David Brown's God & Grace of Body (Oxford: OUP, 2007). The title of this post is that of his first chapter, in which he begins the project of examining 'the ways in which bodies might open human beings up to the possibility of experiencing God or the divine through them' (11).

Having roomed with Jim West at the San Diego SBL, my first critical thought was, of course, "he has obviously never seen what I have seen!" – but then I turned to his fourth chapter, 'Wasted and Ugly', and waited for references to jwest.wordpress.com.

But seriously, this is a very engaging and arguably important book, offering ways to expand our horizons on how we experience God. By the way, his chapter on dancing even discusses belly dancing! Interesting also was the link made, in an analysis of the dance of Martha Graham, between Jonathan Edwards' 'dogmatic denouncements' and the employment of an 'absolutely rigid upper body' in her movements.

It made me think: what sort of dance would best express my theology and faith?!

To get personal: What sort of dance would best express your own worldview, faith or theological tendencies?

As Rowan Williams wrote: this book opens doors 'into all sorts of fresh insight'.