Title: Deific Figures and Human Bodies: Creating Hierarchies of Difference through the Incarnation of Moral Authority
Abstract:Religious communities have long affirmed the agency of their sacred texts and their God/gods, providing a unique site of study for research on ventriloquizing authority, textual agency, and the power ...Religious communities have long affirmed the agency of their sacred texts and their God/gods, providing a unique site of study for research on ventriloquizing authority, textual agency, and the power of incorporeal figures like values or principles. This paper uses PraiseMoves, an Evangelical organization selling a “Christian alternative to yoga,” as a case study to develop the concept of deific agency. Deific agency is the agential power of incorporeal projections of moral authority. These projections mediate text-human relationships both in and beyond particular organizational contexts by imbuing visibly-privileged human bodies with moral authority. Deific figures can thus overwhelm textual agency by bonding with visibly-privileged bodies and thereafter organizing perceptions of moral authority in and beyond organizations in ways that disproportionately benefit physically-privileged human beings. This paper concludes by articulating the value of believing bodies for research and suggesting future avenues of inquiry.Read More
Publication Year: 2022
Publication Date: 2022-12-22
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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