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Sex and the City (of God): Is Sex Forfeited or Fulfilled in Augustines Resurrection of Body?
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA 94709.
Reading Augustines hypothetical description of resurrection bodies through Freud and his critics construction of "sexuality," I suggest that Augustines mature writings on the resurrection include some-thing like post-Freudian ideas of sexuality, even though the concept itself was not part of Augustines conceptual universe. Historicizing "sexuality" frees the concept for revision so that sexuality can be thought of as embedded in social assumptions and arrangements rather than individual, as part rather than essence of the self, and as gendered rather than universal. Collecting and composing hints and clues scattered in Augustines sermons and treatises, I sketch a post-Augustinian proposal for an ideal sexuality that is not incompatible with, but extends, elaborates, and refines Augustines description of resurrection bodies.