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Aging and death, obesity and eating disorders, feelings of hatred toward the body, sexual struggles, suffering, pain, subjectivity-we are constantly confronted with problematic reminders of our embodied existence. Perhaps similar experiences led to Paul's poignant commentary on embodiment in 2 Corinthians 5:2-4,
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life ... Therefore we know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
Although "Paul's sighing did not stem from a desire to become permanently disembodied but from an intense longing to take up residence in his 'heavenly dwelling,'"1 he no doubt keenly felt the same struggles that every human experiences as he or she lives as an embodied person in a fallen world. He would not have seen his struggle arising out of embodiment in and of itself; rather, he recognized that the source of his groaning was being a fallen embodied person. Indeed, "Paul sought liberation only from the imperfection of present embodiment, from "bondage to decay/ not from any and every form of corporeality."2
Our embodied fallenness is a significant source of frustration and struggle in this life, but our bodies also enable us to experience the joys and pleasures of the world God made and declared "very good."3 With our bodies we experience the pleasure of a good cup of coffee, the exhilaration of a well-played game of basketball, a good nap after a good meal, the comfort of a hug, the soft touch of a baby's skin-the pleasures and comforts of our embodiment.
The term "embodiment" was first developed to refer to the bodily aspects of human subjectivity by the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty,4 who noted that perception is based on a bodily awareness of the world, and consequently consciousness of an object is mediated through the "knowing-body."5 It has gained more widespread use in referring to the fact that we have material bodies that experience fleshy, physical sensations, as well as passions such as sexuality and aggression. Certainly all three of these implications of embodiment-subjectivity, the capacity for physical sensations, and...