Being in the body : an assessment of the extent to which the spiritual/interior experiences arising from examples of human physical activity can be interpreted/clarified through the use of concept of embodiment (informed and enriched by insights from religious studies) as an interpretive key

• Main Author: Hughes, Sheila
• Published: St Mary's University, Twickenham 1998
• Subjects: 268; 268 Religious education
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265501

This thesis, inter-disciplinary in nature and orientation, seeks to assess the extent to which the spiritual/interior experiences arising from specific examples of human physical activity can be interpreted/clarified through the use of the concept of embodiment (informed and enriched by insights arising from religious studies) as an interpretive key. Diversity of attitudes to the body, evident in theoretical and practical variations, necessitates a clear definition of the particular understanding of embodiment which underpins this study, an indication of how embodiment when used as a 'key' might assist in the interpretation of the experiences to be investigated, and an explanation of the process by which the critical question was identified and developed. In order to provide the methodological framework, Chapter 1 clarifies the synthesis of personal experience, practical knowledge and theoretical understandings which underpin and authenticate a research method characterised by a process of journeying 'back and forth' between key 'pieces' of evidence. In the second chapter of the study the experience arising from human physical activity is discussed and possible modes of interpretation considered. Embodiment as a key for this experience is examined in relation to sport (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 is a survey of understandings of embodiment, drawn largely from religious sources. Thereafter, in Chapter 5, sacred dance will be considered. In Chapter 6, I refer to circumstances, situations and experiences which may impede and distort the recognition and celebration of the fact of our embodiment as experienced in and through our bodies. Findings support the use of embodiment as a viable 'key' for experiences arising from certain types of human physical activity. Fully celebrated and assessed anew for different contexts, embodiment may prove to be a predominant motif of our time, redeeming and enriching our sense of what it means to be in our bodies.