Recognizing that human experience is very much influenced by inhabiting bodies, the past decade has seen a surge in studies about representation of bodies in religious experience and human imaginations regarding the Divine. The understanding of embodiment as central to human experience has made a big impact within religious studies particularly in contemporary Christian theology, feminist, cultural and ideological criticism and anthropological approaches to the Hebrew Bible. Within the sub-field of theology of the Hebrew Bible, the conversation is still dominated by assumptions that the God of the Hebrew Bible does not have a body and that embodiment of the divine is a new concept introduced outside of the Hebrew Bible. To a great extent, the insights regarding how body discourse can communicate information have not yet been incorporated into theological studies.

Author Biography

Tamar Kamionkowski, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Bible and Academic Dean of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel. Wonil Kim, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament at the School of Religion, La Sierra University