What is the human body? How our mind (or soul) is united with our body? Is bodily death a human death?…… This research project aims to clarify how these questions concerning our body have been discussed in the Christian tradition. In other words, this project aims to clarify how human body (including Jesus-Christ’s body) has been understood, accepted and defined in the history of Christianity.
Although there is always ‘body’ in the center of Christian dogmas and rituals, such as beliefs in the Incarnation of Logos (the Word), in the Resurrection and in the Holy Communion, in this project we direct our attention especially to the treatment of the body in the ascetism of monks and nuns in the Orthodox tradition. (During the Byzantine period, there were monks at Mont Athos who employed in their prayer some kind of psycho-physical method such as the controlling of breathing and the use of some specific postures.) By analyzing their practices and thoughts, we hope to bring ourselves closer to the understandings of Christian views on human beings.