Externalizing Faith: Countering Individualism Through an Embodied Emphasis

Abstract

While the importance of an embodied theology has been recognized, in light of recent literature that sees a growing modern-day shift from emancipated individuality to ideological individualism, the aim of this article is to deepen the theological reflection on the urgent need for a more intentional embodied emphasis. This strategic approach is particularly significant, since in spite of the current challenge there remains a tendency toward a disembodied, anti-liturgical orientation that prioritizes words and cognition, locating theological truth on the inside of the autonomous individual thinking subject, who remains free to either accept or reject its propositional content. Drawing from relevant literature that provides a conceptual framework, this article argues that especially in today’s context, an overt emphasis on the externalization of faith and the embodiment of theological normatives performed together in community offers more promising pedagogical effectiveness. A bodily focus is principally important since it provides an experiential platform for the communal enactment and consequent appropriation of religious knowledge, thus potentially circumventing the present challenge of increasingly rigid individualism.

We want the good life now

“…This is why "Christians need to believe that the gospel is not only relevant for our soul and in the afterlife, but also for our bodies, relationships, and our lives here and now" (Paas, 2021: 148). Although the conflict between the utilitarian aspects of salvation and the commonly assumed transcendent orientation continues to persist (Aždajić, 2021), it is important to take people's aspirations to flourish seriously. Lived religions understand that humans fundamentally long to thrive.…”