Attending the Wounds on Christ's Body

The disunity of the church is a social and theological scandal for it betrays the prayer of Jesus that we ""will be one . . . so that the world will believe"" (John 17:21). As a Baptist whose academic background focused on the Orthodox Church and whose teaching has included Catholic and Protestant contexts, this division is for Elizabeth Newman personal and professional. Attending to the Wounds on Christ's Body rests on the conviction that the broad tradition of Christianity already contains resources to heal the church, namely the saints of the church. Newman examines especially how Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) speaks to the whole church today in the midst of political, economic, and ecclesial brokenness. Teresa's reliance upon three scriptural figures--dwellings, marriage, and pilgrimage--helps make sense of an ecclesial way of life that is inherently unitive, a unity that stands in contrast to that of the nation-state or the global market. Teresa's scriptural journey offers an alternative at once liturgical, political, and economic. This Doctor of the Church provides ""medicine"" that can repair wounds of division that separate brothers and sisters in Christ.

""Elizabeth Newman is one of our best spiritual writers and she works at the intersection of theology, spirituality, and Christian behavior. She attends all of these matters in this new book on St. Teresa of Avila, helping us move past the false images of Teresa to reclaim a vision for ecclesial renewal at the heart of her concern.""
--Timothy George, Founding Dean, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University

""This is a wonderfully informative book about Teresa of Avila, but it is also much more. Newman reflects on Teresa's central images, dwellings, marriage, and pilgrimage to challenge modern Christians to reconsider their understandings of such things as time, abundance, place, politics, and economics. Such work helps us better inhabit a divided church, to repent of wounding her, and to imagine and pray for her healing. It is hard to conceive of more important theological work.""
--Stephen Fowl, Chair of the Department of Theology, Loyola College


Elizabeth Newman is Professor of Theology and Ethics at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. She is the author of Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers (2007).