Made in an Imperfect Image
Race, Ethnicity, Disability, and Infirmity in the Life of Aphou
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8204073 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Candace Buckner (Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Carolina Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, U.S.A, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 483-511 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jaarel/lfz003 |
| OpenAlex | W2945274535 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
At the beginning of a debate concerning human imperfection, the Bishop Theophilus supposedly asked: “How can you [Aphou] say of the Ethiopian that he is in the image of God? Or someone who is leprous or lame or blind?” This inquiry, recorded in the fifth-century Coptic Life of Aphou, offers a glimpse into the discriminatory logic present in Coptic hagiographic texts. This article begins with a critique of the scholarly treatment of this interrogative. Then it re-examines Theophilus’ question in conjunction with Greco-Roman and Christian discourses of race, disability, and illness. Using disability and race theory, it argues that the text draws upon physiognomic understandings of the body in combination with Christian notions of bodily sinfulness to devalue and stigmatize deviant bodies. In doing so, it reveals how Coptic narratives appropriated and employed race, ethnicity, infirmity, and disability as markers of ideological boundaries in ways that complicated broader discourses of somatic difference. “How can you say of the Ethiopian man that he is the image of God? Or of someone who is leprous or lame or blind?” — Francesco Rossi 1885, 101
Art · Art history · Ethnic group · Ideology · Imperfect · Literature · Narrative · Politics · Portrait · Race (biology) · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Gender Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
Blacks in antiquity
Disability in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Visions of Christ
The Body and Physical Difference
Approaching Disabilities a Capite ad Calcem
“The blind, lame and paralyzed” (John 5
Desert Christians
Thinking Men
A History of Disability
Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature (review)
The Discourse of Disability in Ancient Greece
Extraordinary Bodies
Naturalis historiae libri XXXVII
Heroes and Outcasts
Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings
The Curse of Ham
Virgil's Gaze
The Roman Gaze
Queer Eye for the Ascetic Guy? Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks in Late Antique Egypt
Disability Studies and Biblical Literature
The Memory of the Eyes. Pilgrims to Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity
Illness and Health Care in the Ancient Near East
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |