The material turn in the humanities (and social sciences) entails rejections along with its embrace of positive ideas about matter. It has largely rejected theology, though scholars of religion have begun to change this; and it rejects anthropocentrism, particularly the idea that humans are uniquely capable of knowledge and action. This book takes up three apparently anthropocentric myths that are central to Abrahamic religions—those of the primal human, the incarnated figure of a redeemer, and the resurrected body. At first glance, the existence of these stories seems to reinforce a very huma ... More

The material turn in the humanities (and social sciences) entails rejections along with its embrace of positive ideas about matter. It has largely rejected theology, though scholars of religion have begun to change this; and it rejects anthropocentrism, particularly the idea that humans are uniquely capable of knowledge and action. This book takes up three apparently anthropocentric myths that are central to Abrahamic religions—those of the primal human, the incarnated figure of a redeemer, and the resurrected body. At first glance, the existence of these stories seems to reinforce a very human-centered theology. Many ancient and medieval readings of each of these mythic figures, though, particularly within the versions of the religious traditions that emphasize Wisdom, offer possibilities for readings that expand knowing, agency, and even divinity into all of the matter of the world. These mythic readings of matter, beginning with but not restricted to human bodies, supplement our factual, scientific readings of the material world to engage wider kinds of knowing and affective attention.