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Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power

Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic PowerJourneys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power by Rita Nakashima Brock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally read Brock's classic 1988 work. It has been referenced in so many other books I've read, I'm glad I've finally read the original.

When I started the other day I skimmed a lot at the beginning, as she was arguing for certain elements of feminist methodology that one doesn't have to argue for anymore but have become standard elements of theology without the "feminist" qualifier. It was good to realize how much we've improved the discipline.

Little that appears in the book is completely new to me, but her arguments were good to read, especially as she discussed anger, child abuse, and Jesus' exorcisms.

Her core message is that salvation comes through erotic power arising from the relationships of community built around Christ. Salvation is not in the person, life, or death of the historical Jesus. As with other feminists and womanists, her vision of salvation is more holistic than that traditionally promulgated by Christian theology.

Two paragraphs from the Epilogue will summarize her perspective:

The power that gives and sustains life does not flow from a dead and resurrected savior to his followers. Rather, the community sustains life-giving power by its memory of its own brokenheartedness and of those who have suffered and gone before and by its members being courageously and redemptively present to all. In doing so, the community remains Christa/Community and participates in the life-giving flow of erotic power. No one person or group exclusively reveals it or incarnates it. In thinking that a single person, a savior, or even one group can save us, we mistake the crest of a wave for the vast sea churning beneath it.


No one else can help us avoid our own pain. No one else can stop the suffering of brokenheartedness in our world but our own courage and willingness to act in the midst of the awareness of our own fragility. No one else can die for us or bring justice, liberation, and healing. The refusal to give up on ourselves and our willingness to struggle with brokenheartedness, involve us in healing the powers of destruction, which must be taken into our circle of remembrance and healing if we are to understand and love the whole of life. Our heartfelt action, not alone, but in the fragile, resilient interconnections we share with others, generates the power that makes and sustains life. There, in the erotic power of heart, we find the sacred mystery that binds us in loving each other fiercely in the face of suffering and pain and that empowers our witness against all powers of oppression and destruction.


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