Theologies of embodiment have changed and developed in the wake of massive social changes over the past fifty years. The church has a long history of working alongside medicine in telling people how their bodies work and what they should and should not do with them. Whilst church teachings and practice have fallen behind, spiritual thought leaders have embraced the new possibilities that thinkers from feminist, womanist, queer, trans, non-binary, disabled, post-humanist, post-colonial and eco perspectives offer into a cultural space of questioning and rethinking. Who are we really, and how does our body ‘function’ in asking and answering that question? What does history teach us about how we are named and valued according to the body we have? Is there anything essential in gender and sexuality? How does power circulate and operate to include, exclude, decide what is normative, and shape what is possible? What might a liberated theology of embodiment look and feel like?

This event is an online exploration of these and other themes emerging from the publication of ‘Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies’ by Helen King, Wellcome Collection, 2024.

Join the author (a longtime friend of Modern Church), along with Rachel Mann and Evie Vernon O’Brien, on Thursday January 30th at 7 – 8.30pm for an Online Panel discussion chaired by Alison Webster, General Secretary of Modern Church.

Helen King is an authorised lay preacher and elected member of General Synod. A retired professor of Classical Studies from The Open University, her academic research focuses on the history of gynaecology and midwifery from the ancient world to the nineteenth century.

Rachel Mann is a priest, poet, writer & broadcaster. She is Archdeacon of Salford & Bolton & has written fifteen books.

Evie Vernon O’Brien is a Jamaican womanist theologian with a revolutionary bent, and Racial Justice Director for the Church of England in the West Midlands.