How the phenomenology of pain allows us to rethink human incarnation
 
While the phenomenological tradition has carefully treated both the objective and the lived body, Espen Dahl explores a dimension of the body that does not fall neatly into either category, suggesting that philosophers should take account of the inner density of our organic, material body. By integrating the dimension of “flesh-and-blood” into the phenomenological notion of the body, Dahl argues that it is possible to reach a more adequate notion of human incarnation. The author explores the body in its subjectivity and its resistance, in activity founded on passivity, and in the ambiguous limits of its skin. The phenomenon of pain is given particular attention in this investigation, since pain is, as Dahl argues, what makes the body inescapably manifest in its otherwise hidden dimensions, including its ambiguity and vulnerability. Related to this focus, Dahl also engages with the Christian theological concerns of incarnation, pain, and hope. Phenomenologists have long drawn on this religious inheritance, particularly in what has been dubbed the French “theological turn.” In a similar manner, Incarnation, Pain, Theology: A Phenomenology of the Body draws on these theological sources while firmly holding to its philosophical commitments in methodological approach and analytic aims.

ESPEN DAHL is a professor of systematic theology and philosophy of religion at the University of Tromsø—the Arctic University of Norway.

"Crossing traditional disciplinary boundary lines, Espen Dahl’s insightful book engages an extremely impressive array of contemporary scholarship thoughtfully and critically while also advancing a novel phenomenological sense of the lived body." —​Christina M. Gschwandtner, Fordham University  — -

"An outstanding achievement, bearing the fruit of many years of meticulous scholarship and deep thought on its philosophical-theological topic." —Drew Leder, Loyola University Maryland— -