From Within the Body: Naming God and Situated Readings of the Body of Christ

Beginning with Janet Soskice’s claim that Christians remain called to name God anew, this article argues that theological language emerges from within the embodied and liturgical life of the Church. Drawing on liturgical theology and contemporary accounts of situated interpretation, it proposes that scriptural metaphors are encountered by readers whose embodied experiences shape what becomes visible within them. The Pauline image of the body of Christ serves as a case study through which the article explores how different forms of embodied life – including queer experience – may illuminate dimensions of belonging, difference, mutual dependence and eucharistic participation. The article argues that such readings do not necessarily displace established ecclesiological and eucharistic interpretations of Paul’s body-of-Christ metaphor. Instead, they reveal dimensions of belonging, recognition, difference and interdependence that become especially visible when the metaphor is encountered from particular embodied locations within the worshipping community. The discussion does not presume a singular queer experience. Rather, it focuses on several recurring themes identified within queer theological reflection – especially belonging, recognition, kinship and relationality – as possible sites from which Pauline body imagery may be read.