Video: Being Bodies: Paul’s Body Language and Ours—Fall 2016 Lund Lecture

Dr. Eastman argues that Paul envisions the human body not as a mere vessel or barrier, but as a communicative conduit that participates in relational dynamics. Drawing from cognitive science, neurology, and ancient Christian and philosophical traditions, she shows how bodily imitation and neural mirroring create a “we-space” in which our identities are socially formed and internally relational. In other words, she contends that our bodily existence is already saturated with others: our gestures, mimicry, and embodied interactions shape who we are in relation to others. When the relational systems we inhabit are corrupt or corrupted by sin, the body internalizes damage; only divine action (in Christ) can liberate the body and reconstitute it in a healthier relational matrix.

Eastman situates her argument within a broader “participatory anthropology,” suggesting that Paul’s language about flesh, body, and spirit presupposes that persons are never isolated individuals but always embedded and constituted in relational systems. She uses Paul’s texts to illustrate how Christ’s embodiment and identification with humanity break the oppressive relational systems (sin, flesh) and inaugurate new modes of embodiment rooted in union with Christ. Thus the body becomes a locus of transformation: it is liberated from the old relational matrix and instead participates in the life of God.

Timestamps

• Imitation, neural mirroring and relational formation 1:42
• Bodies as bridges, not barriers 6:20
• Damage internalized in corrupt systems 12:05
• Divine reconstitution of the body in Christ 17:45