Gerard Loughlin

Gebundenes Buch

Alien Sex

Beschreibung

Gerard Loughlin is one of the leading theologians working at the interface between religion and contemporary culture. In this exceptional work, he uses cinema and the films it shows to think about the church and the visions of desire it displays. In the figure of the alien, Loughlin finds a metaphor for that which is both most feared and desired: the body and its cravings. Secular culture follows St Augustine in thinking sex an alien force within the body. But the ancient church also found in sex the presence of a yet stranger desire that secularity forgets: the divine eros that is always other to us even as it draws us into its embrace. In God we find that which is both infinitely alien and intimate to ourselves. Alien Sex explores the Christian tradition of 'sacred eroticism' - from Gregory of Nyssa to Hans Urs von Balthasar. Through a close reading of such films as The Devils, Breaking the Waves and Derek Jarman's The Garden, Loughlin shows how Christianity calls us to view sexuality from the perspective of heaven, not in order to escape the body but to encounter it more intensively. Through desire of the body we regain paradise.

Autor

Gerard Loughlin is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is a founding co-editor of the journal Theology & Sexuality.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley
• Seitenzahl: 340
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. November 2003
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 240mm x 161mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 677g
• ISBN-13: 9780631211792
• ISBN-10: 0631211799
• Artikelnr.: 21079933

Rezensionen

"Absolutely brilliant." Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University

"Alien Sex is part of Blackwell's Challengesin Contemporary Theology series, a series that has produced some ofthe most creative theological thinking in recent years.Loughlin's book is no exception... Loughlin'sinnovative method of dealing with his material is in line with thetheological approach taken but also connects with the cinematicperspective. His subject matter, however, covers a wider range ofinterests than film and theology and delves into the realms of arthistory and literature. ... Loughlin's Alien Sexis an extremely interesting and important work." Journalof the American Academy of Religion

"Alien Sex presents Gerard Loughlin's incarnationaltheology in

a compelling mantle of film theory... The book's threeparts... display continual jump cuts between film texts, theology,and philosophy with dizzying effect, but Loughlin keeps readersfrom potential frustration through fascinating readings of a widearray of films... he works wonders with eclectic and appropriatejuxtapositions of theological and scriptural texts." Journal ofReligion

"Alien Sex refuses, without coyness, to be quite the bookpromised by its subtitle. It is the more dazzling for therefusal... Alien Sex is rather an exercise in writing aboutincarnation under the present regime of mass images. It inter-cutstraditional Christian discourses with selections from recent filmsin hopes of recognizing holy bodies... Loughlin's book is nottheology and film; it is theology after film - theology simply andsplendidly... The final effect - despite and because of itsbrilliance - raises questions." Studies in ChristianEthics

"It is frankly difficult to see how a book with a titlelike this could fail to be interesting and Loughlin does notdisappoint... [It is] difficult to imagine anyone other thanLoughlin bringing together Christian tradition and pop culture insuch a provocative and endlessly inventive way...Loughlin's work is an important revisionary reading of therole of sexuality in both theological tradition and secularmodernity... I would nominate this brilliant synthesis oftheology, film and cultural theory as my book of the year withinthe field [of religion]." The Year's Work inCritical and Cultural Theory (2005)

"Loughlin envisages a complete remodelling of traditionalChristian ideas on the place and importance of sexual activity inlife... Loughlin's subject will increasingly preoccupyintellectually, socially and morally adventurous Christians, andthere will be changes in the Church's attitudes to sex in thedecades to come." Times Literary Supplement