Today in a section called "the body and disposition" Mount Shoop fills in some of the reason she uses the word disposition in her writing on embodying redemption.
I use the word "disposition" because it communicates body language. A disposition is a characteristic; it is an inclination that includes outlook, attitude and tendencies toward certain behaviors. Dispositions have blurred distinctions among mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual characteristics of the body. They integrate all layers of embodied experience. They are not only ethical, but also existential and deeply embedded beyond the reach of conscious decision. Bodies feel and fashion inclinations, behaviors, outlooks, and character out of the constellations of feeling's flow.
Dispositions also embody that which enjoys prevalence and consistency. Over the long haul, dispositions are indications of the kind of people we are. Some say they are our "natural" inclinations; but they also embody our intentions. We are in-formed and con-formed by our dispositions. We also in-form them and con-form them in turn. We are not passive, but powerful players in how dispositions take hold in us. When we dispose of something, for example, we make a decision as to how something should be placed or arranged. We give it direction. We regulate it. We dispense it.... Dispositions are creative and wise to the texture of reality. Dispositions function ethically, but they are more than that. Dispositions are both the mothers and the children of our moral decisions and actions.
What we come to be as ones who are beloved of God are people who are offered a gift for life that begins to make up who we are - how we lean into the future and how we interact in the moment at hand. Our disposition - that which is often very visible to the world around us takes shape as this love of God becomes a part of our flesh and blood. We not only learn about our God who loves us, this love makes its way into the fiber of our being. We are not only pulled into God's presence, we - on our part - lean with our lives. Therefore, our lives - how the Word become embodied - shows it hand to the world. Is this disposition what can be called a witness - a witness to the power that brings us to life?
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