Catholic theology of the body of salvation." "To sow the seeds of perfect purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the function of the priesthood." Augustine is the father of many contemporary theological views on the body. He dwelled at length on the condition of the human body before and after the fall. He was convinced that the heavenly state consisted in complete control of mind over body, especially in the area of sexuality. To illustrate this point, he notes, that some people can wiggle with their ears, nose or even hair, "completely" at their will. This condition of complete
History of beliefs about the human body is important to understanding histories of coercion and control, sex and gender, and other important but culturally varied aspects of human experience. Another prominent voice in the field at the same time was Caroline Walker Bynum, whose 1988 "Holy Feast and Holy Fast" became a landmark study. Both Bynum and Porter noted that during the 1980s Western history of the body research drew on post-structuralist thought, such as Michel Foucault's ideas of biopolitics and biopower, which emphasised that state power is not abstract, but exercised through and over human bodies. But both expressed a concern that research was focusing too