ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts in the preceding chapters of this book. The metaphors for the body explored in the book give a contradictory picture of status of the body as part of the human person. The body is a garment of shame or glory, it is the tomb or prison of the soul; conversely it is luminous, and the temple of God. It functions as both enemy and friend; it is the means of transfiguration and redemption for the human person, and the earthly form taken on by God's Logos who was willing to be 'clothed in the body'. Distinguishing between flesh and body, or between being composed of flesh and living according to its demands, goes some way to explaining how the materiality of human existence can co-exist with ascetic aspirations. All theology of the human person needs to be Christ-centred, and so in the end anthropology turns out to an aspect of Christology.
