Abstract
Review of: O’Donnell, Karen. Broken Bodies: The Eucharist, Mary, and the Body in Trauma Theology (SCM Press, 2018). Pp. 224. ISBN 9780334056249.
Karen O’Donnell offers a theology of the eucharist through the lens of trauma.
The Body of Christ is traumatised in several ways. The gathered community,
as the Body of Christ, has many members who have experienced trauma. The
annunciation and becoming pregnant was a traumatic experience for Mary.
Trauma is also in the Godhead, as one person of the Trinity becomes a human
being. Trauma studies have argued that trauma is located and remembered
in the body. At the heart of the Eucharist, therefore, is a somatic memory – a
body broken, a body united by that sign.
Karen O’Donnell offers a theology of the eucharist through the lens of trauma.
The Body of Christ is traumatised in several ways. The gathered community,
as the Body of Christ, has many members who have experienced trauma. The
annunciation and becoming pregnant was a traumatic experience for Mary.
Trauma is also in the Godhead, as one person of the Trinity becomes a human
being. Trauma studies have argued that trauma is located and remembered
in the body. At the heart of the Eucharist, therefore, is a somatic memory – a
body broken, a body united by that sign.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 50-52 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | The Scottish Episcopal Institute Journal |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 27 Sept 2019 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |