The Scandal of Sacramentality

"Theology can be profoundly disturbing, shocking, and enticing. In particular, let eucharistic 'body and blood' be explored in sometimes hair-raising texts and we may find the courage to re-engage with dimensions of mystery that we would prefer to marginalize or even forget. Novelists are among our crucial resources for re-engaging religious mystery and our cultures. This book's remarkable achievement is to show us how this may be done."

--Ann Loades, Professor Emerita of Divinity, University of Durham



"In the texts addressed by Hancock here we return to the body in all its messy complexity, and therefore to the mystery that lies at the very heart of the incarnation, the Word made flesh. . . . For some, this may seem a profane book--but it is in its heart deeply sacramental and, perhaps, even devout. Yet it is timely and challenging, a reminder that religion, and the Christian sacramental tradition, remains a central part of our world and our experience of what it is to be human."

--David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow



"If we wonder why some scandals persist, not for a round of media infamy, but for millennia of controversy and creativity, then this book gives us much insight into what surely is the paragon case study. Whether we are participants in the Eucharistic sacrament, or simply interested in its literary embodiments, there is plenty to be gained from this scholarly reappraisal--and from all its provocations."

--Andrew Hass, Reader in Religion, University of Stirling