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In this engrossing analysis, the author contends that the Eucharist is the Church's response to the use of torture as a social discipline. The author develops a theology of the political which presents torture as one instance of a larger confrontation of power over bodies, both individual and social. He argues that a Christian practice of the political is embodied in Jesus' own torture at the hands of the powers of this world. The analysis of torture therefore is situated within wider discussions in the fields of ecclesiology and the state, social ethics and human rights, and sacrament theology. The book focuses on the experience of Chile and the Catholic church there, before and during the military dictatorship from 1973-1990. The book uses this example to examine the theocratic bases of 20th century 'social Catholicism' and its inability to resist disciplines of the state, in contrast to a truer Christian practice of the political in the Eucharist. 286 page softcover from Blackwell Publishers.
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