The Embodied God
Seeing the Divine in Luke-Acts and the Early Church
Brittany E. Wilson
Reviews and Awards
"Wilson's conclusion makes clear that this book is not intended to deliver the final word on this topic, but to open fresh avenues of research, and in this she has undoubtedly been successful. The questions she raises are compelling and productive. Thanks to Wilson, no one should now be able to write on God in the New Testament and early Christianity without pondering questions of embodiment." -- Matthew Sharp, Biblical and Early Christian Studies
"This insightful examination of visions and theophanies in Scripture demonstrates the breadth and depth of Wilson's command of biblical, Jewish, and Greco-Roman sources...The Embodied God provides a keen discussion of God's nature." -- W. J. Pankey, CHOICE Connect, Vol. 59 No. 8
"Does God have a body? Can one see God? Probing the narratives of Luke and Acts as a test case, Brittany Wilson's engaging new book The Embodied God challenges us to rethink conventional historical and theological assumptions about divine embodiment and offers fresh insight into the interrelatedness of early Christian and (other) Jewish ways of representing the divine. In lucid and inviting prose, Wilson makes an important, and provocative, contribution to the field. This is a must read for students of Luke and Acts, and it will be of interest also to those who wish to explore the emergence of ideas about God and about Jesus within early Christianity." -- John T. Carroll, Union Presbyterian Seminary
"With The Embodied God, Britany Wilson has joined the emerging conversation among biblical (mostly Hebrew Bible) scholars regarding the presentation of the corporeality of God in the Jewish Scriptures. In helping us "see" these representations of God and Jesus, Wilson challenges the age-old assumptions that the Divine in the early church was disembodied and imperceptible. 'Blessed are the eyes that see. . . .'" -- Mikeal C. Parsons, Baylor University
"If you think that God does not have a body, think again. Brittany Wilson shows that indeed the early Christians who wrote and read the Gospel of Luke and Acts thought that God is a being who is both corporeal and visible, especially when it comes to the body of Jesus. Her brilliant analyses shows that divine embodiment is an old tradition entangled in the Jewish scriptures and Greco-Roman sources, only to be veneered with Greek philosophical arguments about divine transcendence by later Christian writers." -- April D. DeConick, Rice University
