Broken Bodies

"This extraordinarily powerful book does not retreat from the blood, loss and deathliness sewn into Christian theologies across the ages. Nonetheless, it also insists on their transformative potential and capacity to bring new light to experiences of trauma and its aftermath today. O'Donnell's is a bold new voice in constructive theology." -- Susannah Cornwall, Exeter University, UK
"... follows the good feminist practice of starting from one’s own experience, and using that experience as one of the measures for all matters under consideration – in this case, the Annunciation and Incarnation, the Eucharist, and the Trinity. But that does not mean that the book is light on scholarship. On the contrary, it is in part an exercise in ressourcement, drawing on the work of early Christian authors in order to understand the somatic character of Church life and Christian doctrine. The book is also deeply compassionate, and thus has a pastoral orientation. And as a Mariologist, I shall certainly use it as a text for discussion with students." -- Sarah Jane Boss
At once both scholarly and heartfelt, this book makes innovative use of traditions of the Eucharist and of the Virgin Mary in ways that shed important light on the developing theology of trauma. Karen O'Donnell's book bears helpfully on doctrinal, liturgical and also pastoral issues. Warmly recommended. -- Christopher Southgate