Briefly, to conclude, we live in a time and space where the mortification of the body is seen as normative and this is necessarily problematic. The subduing of and dismissiveness towards the importance of the body can be seen right now in Rochdale where some bodies have been seen as of less worth and value than other bodies, and the response to the embodied victims has been re-victimisation, stigmatization and disembodiment. Imagine for a moment if South Yorkshire police force – and any other involved agency had taken an embodied approach to victims of sexual crime and an altogether different outcome. Where there is organisational ill-health as a result of disembodied-ness the most vulnerable suffer and the best outcomes are rarely achieved. Organisations including (and perhaps especially) the Church, have a responsibility fundamental to their identity to develop an embodied, incarnational model and structures of being. Bodies matter for in our bodies lies our experience, in our bodies our relationships are maintained, in our bodies we live and move and have our being, and so does God.
[1] Emma Bell & Daniel King: The Elephant in the room: Critical management studies conferences as a site of body pedagogics: Management Learning; August 26, 2010, p.2.
[2] Heyward, Carter: Our passion for Justice:: Images of Power, Sexuality and Liberation (The Pilgrim Press; New York; 1984) p.319.
[3] Elaine Swan; On Bodies, Rhinestones and Pleasures: Women Teaching Managers; Management Learning; London: 2005; 36: 317, p.319.
[4] Kate Kenny and Emma Ball; The Handbook of Gender, Work and Organisations; (eds.) Jeannes, E; Martin, P.Y; 2011; J. Wiley & Sons Ltd; Chichester, p.172.
[5] Heidi Gottfried; The Temp(t)ing Bodies; Shaping Gender at Work in Japan; Sociology; 2003; 37:257
[6] Kate Kenny and Emma Ball; The Handbook of Gender, Work and Organisations; (eds.) Jeannes, E; Martin, P.Y; 2011; J. Wiley & Sons Ltd; Chichester, p.169.
[7] Joanna Brewis; Transforming managers: gendering change in the public sector; (eds) Whiteread, Stephen M, Moodly Roy; 1999; UCL Press;; London.
[8] Heyward, Carter; Saving Jesus from those who are right – rethinking what it means to be a Christian; Augsburg Fortress; Minneapolis; 1999; p. 127
[9] Emma Bell & Daniel King: The Elephant in the room: Critical management studies conferences as a site of body pedagogics: Management Learning; August 26, 2010, p.6.
[10] Zikmund, Barbara Brown; Empowerment & Embodiment: Understanding of Ministry in the United Church of Christ; Theology & Identity (eds) Johnson, D; Hambrick-Stowe C. The Pilgrim Press, 1990 New York.
[11] http://www.ucc.org/about-us/ accessed 27/08/2014