Groundings: Embodying Desert Thinking and Hebraic Practices of Freedom
This article reflects on the wilderness years of the Exodus, engaging desert thinking not simply as a process of worldly renunciation and inner spiritual transformation, but as a need to also practice freedom as an embodied practice in which the social and political are also transformed. The world-r...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
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In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2018, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Pages: 226-243 |
IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism CB Christian life; spirituality CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CG Christianity and Politics CH Christianity and Society HB Old Testament |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | This article reflects on the wilderness years of the Exodus, engaging desert thinking not simply as a process of worldly renunciation and inner spiritual transformation, but as a need to also practice freedom as an embodied practice in which the social and political are also transformed. The world-renouncing connotation of 'desert spirituality' has a certain Christian bias that registers a particular line in the sand that can make it harder to reflect across the boundaries of diverse religious traditions. Jewish traditions can help us to imagine differently, in more embodied ways, whilst also reminding us of the need to engage with traumatic histories and cultural memories of slavery, holocaust histories, and colonial oppression. Often these legacies are carried in gendered ways, in bodies as well as minds, and the emotional and spiritual work that needs to be done to remake lives involve creative embodied practices of freedom that are both personal and political, offering hope for living differently in a more just world. |
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ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/fry012 |