Popis: |
The book “The Body […] is […] for the Lord, and the Lord for the Body” (1 Cor 6, 13). Biblical Foundations for the Theology of the Human Body by father prof. Tomasz Maria Dąbek OSB touches on a subject that is extremely significant for contemporary people and dramatically current in a world where, on the one hand, medical progress and inventing many new medicines have allowed us to radically prolong human life expectancy and facilitate social activisation of sick and handicapped persons, while on the other hand led to considering human organs as transplants and implants, “spare parts” of sorts (A. Litwińczuk, Ciało człowieka w kulturze. Przegląd zagadnień [Human Body in Culture. A Review]), which has led to “breaking up the integrity of the person.” If we add to this diagnosis the twentieth-century conceptions of the industrial body (e.g. the body of a factory worker or a soldier), considered in terms of efficiency, productivity, as well as the hedonistic body, subjected to the constant pressure of “the global culture of consumption” (A. Litwińczuk), it will appear that the threat of human beings becoming objectified becomes very real. All the circumstances listed above justify a return to elementary questions about the human nature in relation to the world, God, and other human beings. The answers are to be sought, among other places, in the Bible – a work of fundamental significance for the civilisation of the West – and Tomasz Dąbek’s publication offers useful help in this task. |