Papers by Kristin Kissell
Dance is the language of the soul. Dance, as a theological source, can remind us of who we are in... more Dance is the language of the soul. Dance, as a theological source, can remind us of who we are in and with the living perichoresis of the Trinity. Dance, as embodied art, can provide us with a new way of viewing and discussing pneumatology and that we too, in our incarnate reality, participate in perichoresis. Within this work I seek to answer the questions of how dance is a source of theology, why a pneumatology of the body is significant, and how dance provides a framework for a pneumatology of the body. The creation of a pneumatology of the body is a rooting or re-membering of the Spirit and our own spirit in incarnational—skin and bones—reality that includes us in Trinitarian perichoresis. Pneumatology of the body is dancing with the Holy Spirit in our given time and space to retrieve the dignity of our embodied inspirited selves as made in the imago Dei. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit are not abstract concepts. Through dance as embodied art we can move from abstract, i...
This work addresses the question of what we can learn about body, gender, and sexuality from anci... more This work addresses the question of what we can learn about body, gender, and sexuality from ancient Near Eastern goddess traditions in order to subvert binaries of body/spirit and male/female in Christianity. The methodology used is a feminist and comparative. Beginning with an analytic account of body in the context of antiquity and today, I highlight the importance of understanding body personification in different times and spaces; emphasizing the need to continually hold the body, embodiment, and experience in tension and mystery rather than certainty and categorization. I seek to expose the damage such binaries, language, and categorization inflict upon all persons, particularly women. Ancient Near Eastern people knew the importance of both feminine and masculine energy. Unfortunately, our Western culture has been molded primarily through masculine logic and reason. The idea that the feminine is less than divine leaves women feeling shamed and striving toward unrealistic perfe...
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Papers by Kristin Kissell