Wednesday, November 17, 2010

44 of 52




This book was interesting, though not extremely well-written. The author weaves together so many ideas that the connections among the ideas are not always altogether clear. To say that it deals with "women and a spirituality of the body," as the subtitle reads, is a good indication of how broad and vague the conclusions can be.

That said, I did find a lot of worthwhile and engaging strands of ideas, whether or not they were woven together well. The book is primarily about the modern disconnect between body and soul, and how that affects women in particular. Barger argues that the incarnate God, Jesus, offers a solution to this disconnect and the problems caused by it, and encourages us to embrace our bodies by embracing local communities, geographic place, and bodily presence, "based on faith that an invisible kingdom is being made visible in the bodies of the men and women who actively follow the crucified and resurrected one."

(ps - this book was for a book club I've been invited to join! We met last night, and it was wonderful. A book club where members actually read the book! And take notes! And have strong, well-reasoned opinions! Finally a group in which I'm not the dorky over-achiever.)

2 comments:

Katie said...

Jealous of your book club--fun!

mollie said...

sounds like a fabulous book club!