The Learning Earth

Incarnation, Eucharist and the Christian Body: A Complete Guide·Appendix of 9

Glossary and Sources

Primary

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Glossary

Term Pronunciation What it is
sarx sarks The human material — and, separately, the Pauline ethical term; the confusion is chapter 2
sōma SO-ma The organised body — always a positive term in Paul
anastasis sarkos — The hope of the Creed: resurrection of flesh, not immortality of soul
Docetism — The body of Christ as apparent — rejected immediately
“That which was not assumed is not healed” — Gregory of Nazianzus’s compact formulation of the logic
Chalcedon, 451 — Two natures, without confusion and without separation — a refusal to resolve the paradox
transsubstantiatio trans-sub-stan-tsi-A-tsio Transubstantiation — the term is of 1215, the practice twelve centuries older
substantia / accidentia sub-STAN-tsia / ak-tsi-DEN-tsia Substance / accidents — the dogma explicitly predicts no measurement will show a difference
Marburg, 1529 — Agreement on 14 of 15 articles; division on the 15th, which was the bread
materia / forma ma-TE-ria / FOR-ma Material and words — both needed for a valid sacrament
ex opere operato ex O-pe-re o-pe-RA-to “From the work performed” — a solution of mechanical scalability
matrimonium non consummatum — Marriage valid but incomplete — the sexual act as constitutive of a sacrament
Regula Benedicti, c. 530 RE-gu-la be-ne-DIK-ti The Rule — explicitly moderate: “nihil asperum, nihil grave”
Chapter 36 of the Rule — The care of the sick before every other obligation
Liturgia Horarum li-tur-GI-a ho-RA-rum The Hours — seven plus one; the Psalter in a week
lectio divina LEK-tsio di-VI-na The third limb that is forgotten — and the reason we have the ancient literature
Exercitia Spiritualia, 1548 ex-er-TSI-tsia spi-ri-tu-A-lia The Exercises — a manual for the director, not for the practitioner
compositio loci kom-po-ZI-tsio LO-tsi Composition of place — concrete detail is the method
applicatio sensuum ap-pli-KA-tsio SEN-su-um The five senses, with explicit sequencing
additiones ad-di-tsi-O-nes Light, posture, food, sleep as regulated variables — 16th century
consolatio / desolatio — Consolation / desolation — and the rule: in desolation, no decisions
Nicaea II, 787 — Veneration of icons and relics; proskynesis versus latreia
inventio / translatio in-VEN-tsio The “discovery” and translation of a relic
furta sacra FUR-ta SA-kra “Sacred thefts” — with their own justifying literature
memento mori me-MEN-to MO-ri “Remember that you die” — structurally the same as asubha
transi tran-ZI The double tomb: dressed above, decomposing below
anorexia mirabilis — A later term; the cases and the deaths not
diakrisis — Measure — the virtue the tradition named supreme and did not impose
glossolalia — 584 million participants, five people of imaging literature
pikuach nefesh pi-KU-ach NE-fesh (Judaic term, for comparison) The saving of life as obligation — the only structural solution of the series

Sources

Primary

  • John 1:1–14; John 6; 1 Cor 15; Rom 6; Gal 5:19–21 — the central passages of chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 8
  • The Apostles’ and Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed — carnis resurrectionem
  • Ignatius of Antioch, Letters (c. 110) — the early anti-Docetic emphasis
  • The Didache (c. 100) — baptism and its alternatives
  • The Definition of Chalcedon (451); Nicaea II (787); Fourth Lateran (1215); Trent, session 13 (1551)
  • Regula Benedicti (c. 530) — especially chapters 2, 36, 39–41, 48
  • Ignatius of Loyola, Exercitia Spiritualia — the Annotations, the first week, the additiones, the rules of discernment and the rules on food
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, qq. 73–83 — the eucharist
  • Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter 101 — “that which was not assumed is not healed”

Critical, from within

  • Guibert of Nogent, De pignoribus sanctorum (c. 1125) — critique of relics, 12th century
  • Erasmus; Calvin, Treatise on Relics (1543)
  • Pierre d’Arcis, report to the pope (1389) — for chapter 22

Modern scholarship

  • Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (1987) and The Resurrection of the Body (1995) — foundational for chapters 4 and 23
  • Rudolph Bell, Holy Anorexia (1985) — the opposing reading of chapter 23
  • Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra (1978) — for chapter 20
  • Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981); The Body and Society (1988)
  • Robert Orsi, for bodily popular piety
  • Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2004); Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven (1995) — for chapter 26
  • Candy Gunther Brown, for faith healing as a field of study

Measurements and clinical

  • Bernardi L. et al., BMJ 323:1446 (2001) — rosary, mantra, six cycles per minute, baroreflex sensitivity
  • Newberg A. et al., Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging (2006) — glossolalia, SPECT, n=5
  • Asser S.M. & Swan R., Pediatrics 101(4):625–629 (1998) — 172 child deaths, 1975–1995
  • Damon P.E. et al., Nature 337:611–615 (1989) — the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud
  • Lindahl J.R., Britton W.B. et al., PLOS ONE 12(5):e0176239 (2017); Farias M. et al., Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 142(5) (2020) — for the assessment of chapter 19
  • Pew Research Center, Global Christianity (2011) — the magnitudes of chapter 26

Declared gaps of this document

  • The non-Chalcedonian churches — Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian — are not covered adequately (chapter 3)
  • The hesychast tradition is covered in the Greek document of this series and is not repeated
  • The African and Latin American bodily practice, where the centre of gravity of chapter 26 is today, deserves its own document

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