Rodney Clapp is the author of Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs and has published more than one hundred magazine articles on church and culture. He is editorial director of Brazos Press and lives in Wheaton, Illinois.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Angels, in the Christian tradition, are disembodied spirits who directly behold the face of God. And we, Clapp insists, are not angels. So Christian spirituality will have to take full account of our bodies—their earthy constitution, their intense desires, their certain death and their promised resurrection. What follows from this premise is a poetic account of traditional spirituality, unapologetically borrowed from writers like the desert fathers, Augustine and Luther, but enlivened with elegant writing and alert to the needs and challenges of contemporary life. To readers who associate spirituality with gauzy inner states, Clapp's attention to everything from posture to excretion will be startling, but the reward is a book that manages to be both traditional and original. Clapp also revives the ancient sense of the "social body," especially as seen in the Christian church's communal feast, the Eucharist. With the same élan he demonstrated in his previous book, Border Crossings, Clapp probes popular culture and household life for clues to practicing the Christian faith. He writes of his dog Merle, "I have never yet seen him gaze into the sky. He would rather keep his nose to the ground, and in his demeanor he is a constant reminder that the dirt—not just the stars—is worth pondering and investigating." Such down-to-earth realism makes this a splendid introduction to Christian spirituality.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Evangelical journalist Clapp wields his not inconsiderable wit, intelligence, and moral clarity like a triple-edged razor to shave modern culture's fuzzy logic off orthodox Christian morality. Calling human beings "tortured wonders" who "live in between, in and as bodies that can only slightly anticipate their full and grace-ripened spiritual capacities," he leans on the wisdom of myriad philosophers to reconcile the apparent disparity between flesh and soul. To make his point about sex and celebrity, he leaps merrily between Luke's Gospel and Elvis Presley, then between Walt Disney's Bambi and Leviticus, to discuss vulnerability and interdependence. Indeed, never shy about applying biblical templates to current affairs, Clapp tries to "picture George W. Bush washing the worn, dirty toes of Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein." So doing, he graphically propels Christ's humility--he washed the feet of Judas--into the twenty-first century. If at times Clapp's language seems irreverent or crude, he explains that this is unavoidable in an apologia for the bond between the human body and the Holy Spirit. Donna Chavez

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A 2004 Publishers Weekly Book of the Year; 2004 Quills Award Nominee Tortured Wonders shows how orthodox Christian spirituality "never gives up on the body." Rodney Clapp begins by addressing the incarnation of Christ and the resurrection of the body, and the place of sacraments in Christian spirituality. Then he takes up the likes of Elvis and Bambi to explore the spiritual consequences of our contemporary obsession with celebrity and the fear of death. He calls us to embrace our creatureliness through a string of irresistible topics: Is there sex in heaven? What is the most "biblical" posture for prayer? Can we learn anything from non-Christian spiritual traditions? Pastors, counselors, and anyone interested in Christian spirituality will appreciate this lucid and insightful book.

From the Back Cover

2004 Publishers Weekly Book of the Year; 2004 Quills Award Nominee

"This is Rodney Clapp at his best. Whether talking about Elvis, the Eucharist, Christian hope, sex, or reality TV, Clapp is insightful, funny, earthy, challenging, and wise. In crafting a spirituality that takes seriously the bodily, historical, and social nature of human existence, Clapp shows what it means to make our way to God in a culture that encourages novelty and titillation more than holiness. Most of all, he demonstrates why Christian spirituality must be centered in the life and practices of the church. Rich with examples and practical illustrations, Tortured Wonders is a delight. This is a book that both transforms our lives and fills us with hope."--Paul J. Wadell, author of Becoming Friends

"This is the freshest contemporary approach to Christian spirituality that I am aware of. As spirituality becomes popular it is also threatened by clichés and superficiality. But not here: this is in-depth, rooted in the masters, shaped by the Eucharist, and all the while managing to maintain a civil conversation with American culture."--Eugene H. Peterson, The Message

"Confronting cliché Christian morality, Clapp argues for a holistic Christian spirituality dismissing the distance between flesh and soul. Skipping gleefully between philosophers and Elvis Presley, Clapp covers ground the Church needs to consider."--Winn Collier, Relevant

FROM C-I電子報第十一期

http://www.fespress.fes.org.hk/newsletter/11/topic4.php

肉身與靈性

二十多年前，我還年輕時，聚會的信仰群體仍受一套屬靈屬世二分的主流信仰論述左右著。在那套論述下，教牧長執口口聲聲著重靈性，且輕視甚至排斥肉身。他們的潛台詞是，靈性是重要的、有價值的，值得我們花上畢生精力追尋；相反，肉身只不過是在世寄居的軀殼，既逼不得已也不重要，沒甚麼價值可言。

在那樣的處境中，身體在教會內無容身的地方。一切與身體有關的事情，生理的、心理的，很大程度上，皆為禁忌。在那個年代，教會只鼓勵年輕信徒讀經祈禱傳福音，反對／禁止他們（包括我在內）追求與身體有關的事情。因此，教會不獨不談身體，也禁止年輕信徒尤其是姊妹展示身體，因此，某些「露肉」的衣著如迷你裙是致命大忌。因著那種排拒的傾向，教會因而連與肉身有密切關係的欲望也極度排斥，教會成了禁欲的地方，但凡與欲望有關的如電影、流行音樂，以及當時剛流行的牛仔褲，全都絕跡於教會之內。在那個時代，我上電影院時，不得不偷偷摸摸，惟恐在電影院門外給傳道人和導師逮個正著。如今遙看那段日子，也覺得匪夷所思。那種荒誕的感覺，竟讓那時的一切看來不那麼真實。

當下，昔日那套把靈性與身體切割的二分信仰思想，當然已沒有甚麼市場可言，教會已不禁止信徒看電影、聽流行音樂、穿「潮」的衣著；然而，教會在肉身的思考工夫上卻不見得有長足的進展。無法否認的是，除了從道德倫理的角度關注性與身體外，今天的香港教會仍對身體陌生。這種有意無意之間所營造的陌生感，或許可讓我們暫時迴避令人尷尬、甚或不安的議題與內容；然而，長遠而言，面對思潮和文化的衝擊，我們只會越來越乏力回應，更別說發揮鹽和光的作用。

身處這樣的處境讀Rodney Clapp的Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality for People, Not Angels【9】，特別有意義。Clapp在書中劈頭便說，我們不是天使，因此，基督徒的靈性應包含肉身的成分──肉身的構造、強烈的欲望、死亡與復活。也許我們會因著 Clapp對肉身鉅細靡遺的關注而驚訝，不過，他能藉此檢視基督教傳統對肉身的見解，從而豐富了身體與靈性兩者關係的內容。除了生理的身體外，Clapp 也提出了群居性身體（social body）的概念。他進而指出，最能展現群居性身體的便是基督教會的聖餐。

一如他以往的作品，Clapp在本書中再次展示他的越界功力，自由出入於流行文化、日常生活及基督信仰的範疇，讓讀者得著了視野融合和信仰反思的機會。 Clapp在書中如此談及他的狗Merle：「我不曾見過牠凝望天空。牠大多把鼻貼在地面，而牠的舉動一再提醒我，值得思考和探索的，是泥土，不是星空。」他那非常「到地」的務實取向，使他這本書在基督徒靈性的探討上綻放著異彩。