Bodies and Souls: The Moral Problem of “Making Men”

Abstract

American liberal religion is significant for this inquiry because it is the theological minefield that contended against and continues to joust with the problem of body within the context of modern America and the postmodern world. Liberal theology is the umbrella from under which the Social Gospel, Neoorthodox, Personalist, Liberation, and Eco-theologies have emerged, and can thus be understood as the product of modern Christendom’s identity crisis, insofar as it is characterized by an intense wrestling with profound questions regarding progressive Christian identity, that is, the constitution of faithful Christian belief and witness in light of modern knowledge and experience. Given this perspective, chapter 4 begins with a brief overview of the intersection of American religious liberalism and the politics of incarnation. This discussion precedes an exploration of the Social Gospel as the particular variety of liberal Christianity that confronted the problem of body theologically and socially within the context of modern America. A summary of the sociohistorical method that emerged from the University of Chicago will subsequently reveal the kata sarka dimensions that propelled Social Gospelers toward the