Spirit and the Obligation of Social Flesh: A Secular Theology for the Global City

312 Pages·2013·1.909 MB·English

by  Sharon V. Betcher

Spirit and the Obligation of Social Flesh

Spirit and the Obligation
of Social Flesh
A Secular Theology for the Global City
Sharon V. Betcher
Fordham University Press
New York 2014
Copyright © 2014 Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
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any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
A version of chapter 6, “Take My Yoga upon You: A Spiritual Pli
for the Global City,” was published in Polydoxy: Theology of
Multiplicity and Relation, edited by Catherine Keller and Laurel
Schneider (London and New York: Routledge, 2010) (ISBN
978- 0- 415- 78136-7 ).
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Betcher, Sharon V., 1956–
Spirit and the obligation of social fl esh : a secular theology for
the global city / Sharon V. Betcher. — First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-5390-6 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8232-5391-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Globalization—
Religious aspects. 2. Cities and towns— Religious
aspects. I. Title.
BL65.G55B48 2014
202.09173'2—dc23
2013006699
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
For Sallie and Janet,
my theological colleagues

C on t e n t s
Ac know ledg ments ix
Introduction 1
1. Crip/tography 26
2. “Fearful Symmetry”: Between Theological Aesthetics
and Global Economics 50
3. Breathing through the Pain: Engaging the Cross as Tonglen,
Taking to the Streets as Mendicants 68
4. In the Ruin of God 107
5. The Ballet of the Good City Sidewalk: Releasing
the Optics of Disability into Social Flesh 139
6. “Take My Yoga Upon You” (Matt 11:29): A Spirit/ual Pli
for the Global City 163
Notes 197
Bibliography 261
Index 295

Ac k now l e d g m e n t s
This book began with a question opened up among colleagues at Vancou-
ver School of Theology: What would a school of theology be and do in
a city that dreamed of being the greenest city on earth by 2020? That’s a
worthy dream for a city, and it has been a fascinating challenge to think
theologically beside such a worthy dream for human habitat. I am grateful
to my colleagues Gerald Hobbs and Sallie McFague, who fi rst birthed the
question in a meeting of the History and Theology division.
My deep appreciation goes to the students in the various courses offered
in response to discerning this theological niche— Sandra, Debra, Ann,
Brother Shane, Shannon, Jessica, David, Carmen, Caroline, Jeanette, Paul,
Alisdair, Min Goo, Karen, Cecilia, Aaron, Will, Jangwon, Leslie, Geoff,
Kat, and Hee Tae. Students have challenged me to see the city through many
different sets of eyes—o f indigeneity; of rural-t o- urban immigration; of
international migration; of class, sex, and gender; of religious hybridity— if
also through the lens of popu lar culture, often the discursive lingua franca
of the city. Special thanks to Clara King, who served as project coordinator
and research assistant through the earliest phases of this project. Kerri
Mesner, Min Goo Kang, Maryann Amor, Will Ferrey, and Midori E.
Hartman provided invaluable research assistance and helped coordinate a
number of public forums that evolved out of this question. Their company
and the fact that we also found occasions for laughter made the venture into
the question of theology in and for the city an artery of curiosity for one
born and raised to—a nd still suffering some nostalgia for—s ubsistence
farming. Thanks again to editor Bud Bynack and to the Transdisciplinary
ix
x Ac know ledg ments
Theology Colloquium of Drew University, through the invitations to
which several of these chapters fi rst emerged.
svb
May 1, 2012
A version of chapter 1, “Crip/tography: Of Karma and Cosmopolis,” was
published in Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology, edited
by Stephen D. Moore and Mayra Rivera (New York: Fordham University
Press, 2011).