Embodied Cognition and the Foundational Eucharistic Texts

This study uses an array of cognitive linguistics methods to show how embodied cognition is displayed in the Markan and Pauline eucharistic texts, as well as to consider some ways embodied cognition enables and animates modern readers' interpretations. A suite of related cognitive linguistic models is presented and deployed: embodied simulation; conceptual Ground; mental spaces, networked and blended; image schemas; conceptual metaphor; semantic frames; and frame metonymy. Embodied cognition allows three things to happen. First, it animates the analogical thinking necessary for biblical interpretation and theological reflection. At the same time, the processes of embodied cognition allow modern Bible-reading communities to enter the narrative worlds of these ancient texts and experience them together in the present tense. Present-tense simulation of the texts allows (but does not determine or force) these experiences to become memories that can anchor and enliven current koinonia, the community of the new covenant.