Business Commons^™

This chapter examines how thinking about the nature of embodiment might inform an understanding of how this metaphor is used to describe the Church. It begins by looking at two important metaphorical uses of the body in the New Testament (the Last Supper and the Church as the Body of Christ) and then employs ideas from the writings of Mark Johnson, John O’Neil, Philip A. Mellor and Chris Shilling to see how they could inform theological notions of embodied unity, diversity, contingency and dialectic. It concludes by arguing that the Church is an embodiment of consensus and conflict.