> The "celebration of the divine as flesh" idea is very tricky. During the
> middle ages the flesh was seen as disgusting. During the Renaissance
> there began a wave of Aristotelian thinking that saw the flesh as
> acceptable. Just as when a tree has to bend with the wind to survive
> instead of break, the church, to stay alive, had to "go with the flow"
> and adapt the Aristotelian idea that flesh was not disgusting to
> Christianity, by calling it "divine".
Hmmm... I don't know, David. Remember where that Aristotelian thinking
came from at the start of the Renaissance? From Latin texts found in the
basements of abbys and monasteries during the Dark Ages and re-introduced
by the church. I dislike The Church (with a capital "C") as much as you,
but there was a time when they were the driving force behind a lot of art
and culture (and wars and Inquisitions too, okay? They're not mutually
exclusive, after all).
Prof. Tim