Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 23:2 (Summer 2019)
Article: Four Theses Concerning Human Embodiment
Author: Gregg R. Allison

SBJT 23:2 (Summer 2019) p. 157

Four Theses Concerning Human Embodiment1

Gregg R. Allison

Gregg R. Allison is professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He is secretary of the Evangelical Theological Society, a pastor at Sojourn Church East, and theological strategist for Sojourn Network. His books include Historical Theology (Zondervan, 2011), Sojourners and Strangers (Crossway, 2012), Roman Catholic Theology and Practice (Crossway, 2014), The Unfinished Reformation (Zondervan, 2016), and 50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith (Baker, 2018). Gregg is married to Nora and together they have three adult children and ten grandchildren.

Introduction

A basic definition of “embodiment” is “having, being in, or being associated with a body.”2 While “the body is a biological, material entity,” in terms of a discipline of study, embodiment is “an indeterminate methodological field defined by perceptual experience and the mode of presence and engagement in the world.”3 A theology of human embodiment,4 a topic on which I am currently writing, is important for many reasons, including: (1) an understanding of God’s creation of human beings and his design for human flourishing (thus, the theology of creation); (2) the constitution of human nature (thus, theological anthropology); (3) the somatic effects of the fall and sin (thus, hamartiology); (4) the nature of the incarnation (thus, Christology); (5) the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of, and divine action through, redeemed human beings (thus, pneumatology and soteriology); (6) the strangeness of disembodiment in the intermediate state and the completion of God’s redemptive work through the general resurrection (thus, eschatology); (7) numerous contemporary moral and social issues such as heterosexuality and homosexuality, transgenderism and gender dysphoria, and body image and body modification; and (8) an expose of the devastating

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impact of Gnosticism/neo-Gnosticism on the America society and church.

This address moves along and develops the following points: four presuppositions of my address; four theses concerning human embodiment; six implications of these theses; and a conclusion.5

Four presuppositions

1. Human nature is complex, consisting of a material element and an immaterial element.

It is beyond the scope of this pre...