Julia Feder, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Theology, recently published an article in the Journal of Moral Theology, titled “The Body and Posttraumatic Healing: A Teresian Approach.” In this article, Feder argues that Teresa of Avila’s ideas about the embodied nature of the human person are incomplete for our contemporary context, but they do provide generative starting points for constructing a contemporary theology of healing from sexual violence. Teresa understands the body as having a profound significance in the life of prayer because it is only in and through the body that one experiences God. For Teresa, therefore, it is also the body (even the wounded and ill body), once having experienced the love of God and thus integrated with all other aspects of the person, that can mediate God’s love both to oneself and to all in need of healing. In the context of sexual violence, it is of vital importance to affirm the profoundly embodied nature of the human person. Because for all humans – and, most especially, for survivors of sexual violence — the body is the hinge of salvation, this paper outlines some of the resources that Teresa can offer us to construct an embodied posttraumatic theology of healing, as well as honestly name some of the limitations of Teresa’s theological understanding of the body. In the end, Teresa can help us to assert clearly in a posttraumatic context that spiritual healing centers not on flight from the wounded body, but rather on coming home to one’s body and receiving God there.
Feder Publishes Article in Journal of Moral Theology
– April 17, 2020Posted in: College of Arts and Sciences, Faculty/Staff News
