ABSTRACT
Bodies proliferate today. Mary Douglas, who pioneered the anthropology of the body, suggested that there were two bodies (1966/1978, 1970/1973). Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock (1987) counted three bodies. For Saint Paul, and Christians generally, there are also potentially three bodies, although two of these, the spiritual and the mystical bodies, are very different from the other three, and from Douglas’ two. Bryan Turner (1984) and Arthur Frank (1991) seem to agree on four bodies, but not the same four. John O’Neill (1985) has reported on five bodiesbut these include allegorical bodies. The ancient Greeks recognized the four bodies of humoural science, and the medievals, as we have seen, recognized seven bodies, according to planetary type, and 12, according to the Zodiac, not to mention mixtures of types.
