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Ways of Sensing
Retrieving the Spiritual Senses Tradition
Paul Dominiak
Paperback |160 pp |198 x 126 mm
‘Taking seriously both the embodiedness of humans and the revelation of God, Paul Dominiak retrieves, reengages and revives the ancient spiritual senses for the modern world. This book reminds us that body knowledge goes alongside head knowledge when it comes to knowing God.’
‘Paul Dominiak does what few contemporary theological authors can do well. He tells us with incisive (but always winning and accessible) clarity why recent scholarly investigations of ’spiritual sensation’ in the patristic tradition are of crucial importance for contemporary life, and for spiritual, sensual, understandings of Christianity.’
Early and medieval Christianity developed a varied spiritual senses tradition to describe the grace-filled capacity to pierce the thin crystal membrane that separates the sensible world from the divine. Just as our physical senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound allow us to perceive the tangible world around us, the spiritual senses engrace us to perceive God in our midst.
In this book, Paul Dominiak unpacks the scriptural roots, historical development and persisting power of this tradition. Each chapter considers in turn the spiritual senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound, illustrating the transformative potential of each for Christian communities in relation to contemporary concerns around trauma, class, immigration, race and gender.
