Celestial Sex: Paracelsus and the Teaching of the “Heavenly Flesh” of Christ
Abstract This paper explores the origins of the Anabaptist doctrine of the “celestial flesh,” which conceived Christ as generated purely out of the substance of the Godhead and thus possessing an entirely “celestial body.” It argues that the origins of this doctrine lie in late medieval alchemical t...
| Published in: | Church history and religious culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2021
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| In: |
Church history and religious culture
Year: 2021, Volume: 101, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 194-213 |
| Further subjects: | B
Paracelsus
B Christology B Gender History B Radical Reformation B celestial flesh B history of the body |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Abstract This paper explores the origins of the Anabaptist doctrine of the “celestial flesh,” which conceived Christ as generated purely out of the substance of the Godhead and thus possessing an entirely “celestial body.” It argues that the origins of this doctrine lie in late medieval alchemical tracts adapted in Paracelsus’s Liber de Sancta Trinitate of 1524, according to which God has a body of heavenly flesh out of which he brings forth a heavenly woman. Through their sexually conceived union the eternal son is begotten and born with a celestial body. |
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| ISSN: | 1871-2428 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Church history and religious culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/18712428-bja10019 |