| Summary: | "Appropriating insights from 'embodied cognition', this study explores how theology is accommodated to the bodily nature of human cognition. The principle of divine accommodation provides a theological framework for considering how human cognitive capacities are accommodated by theological concepts and ecclesial practices. A rich portrait of the nature of human cognitive capacities is drawn from 'embodied cognition' research, which proposes that cognition depends upon sensorimotor systems to ground concepts and draws upon environmental resources. Embodied cognition's hypothesis that human concepts are grounded in sensorimotor states poses a theological quandary for God-concepts, since identifying God with sensorimotor content risks idolatry. The incarnation resolves this problem by grounding God-concepts in bodily understanding, while avoiding idolatry. Embodied cognition further hypothesises that cognition relies on sensorimotor engagement with the world, and that bodily states and environmental artefacts 'scaffold' cognitive processes. A scaffolded view of cognition highlights the cognitive import of embodied religious practices, which choreograph the body and curate material culture. Dozens of studies identifying bodily or environmental influences on cognition are applied to the embodied and material dimensions Christian practices. On account of their inherent cognitive effects, practices have intrinsic 'embodied' meanings alongside 'symbolic' ones. Consequently, liturgy conveys theological content rather than merely expressing it, and thereby contributes to religious and ethical formation. Hence, the book argues that the incarnation and liturgical practices both accommodate the embodied nature of human cognition. The cognitive implications of diverse human embodied are discussed in dialogue with a number of contextual theologies." -- Publisher information.
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