Carnal Excess

flesh at the limits of imagination

This essay explores representations of fleshly excess in Christian and Jewish texts of the late fourth and fifth centuries, from the cosmically-scaled figures of Adam and the resurrected Christ in Genesis Rabbah and Augustine's City of God, on the one hand, to the hagiographical portraits of fat ra...

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Bibliographic Details
Author:Virginia Burrus
Published: S.n., s.l., 2009
Volume:17
Pages:247-265
Language:English
Periodical:Journal of Early Christian Studies
Number:2
ISSN:1067-6341
Format:Article
Topic:- Works > Confessiones > Topics > Body
- Works > Confessiones > Topics > [Transcendance, aussi du moi]
- Works > De civitate Dei > civ. Dei X
- Works > De civitate Dei > Topics
- Doctrine > Man > [Structure métaphysique de l'homme] > [Corps et âme]
- Doctrine > From man to God > Jesus Christ. Redemption. Sacraments. Church. Grace. Mariology. > Christology > [La personne du Christ (études d'ensemble)] > [Titres/thèmes] > [Christ - Dieu]
- Doctrine > From man to God > Jesus Christ. Redemption. Sacraments. Church. Grace. Mariology. > Christology > [La personne du Christ (études d'ensemble)] > [Titres/thèmes] > [Christ - Homme]
- Doctrine > Being > [Infinité. Immutabilité. Unité] > [Immutabilité - mutabilité]
- Doctrine > Being > [Infinité. Immutabilité. Unité] > [Transcendance] > [Transcendance humaine]
Status:Active
Description
Summary:This essay explores representations of fleshly excess in Christian and Jewish texts of the late fourth and fifth centuries, from the cosmically-scaled figures of Adam and the resurrected Christ in Genesis Rabbah and Augustine's City of God, on the one hand, to the hagiographical portraits of fat rabbis and monks in the tractate Baba Metsia of the Babylonian Talmud and the Lausiac History of Palladius, on the other. The Platonic figure of the khora is initially invoked to frame two main arguments: first that these late ancient texts discover transcendence within, ather than outside of, the boundaries of materiality; and, second, that this incarnational tendency has intriguing implications for practices and theories of representation and imagination.