Vile Bodies are bodies that have been vilified by Christian thought, often with catastrophic consequences. The bodies of women, Jews, Muslims, slaves, Blacks, LGBT people, children, wives have all been harmed by negative Christian teaching about bodies. This book sidesteps the endless controversies in the churches about sexuality and gender and goes deeper – unmasking instead the abusive theology that ensures these controversies and their harmful outcomes persist. Drawing extensively from scripture, and from two millennia of church history and theology, Vile Bodies slowly exposes how churches have preferred doctrine to compassion, orthodoxy to justice, and legalism to love, culminating in the global abuse crises in the churches that have largely destroyed their moral credibility.

Vile Bodies is a 1930 novel satirising the bright young things: decadent young London society after World War I. The title appears in a comment made by the novel’s narrator in reference to the characters’ party-driven lifestyle: “All that succession and repetition of massed humanity... Those vile bodies...”

Unlock the more straightforward side of Vile Bodies with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, which chronicles the lives of the ‘Bright Young People’, the hedonistic generation of the interwar period. The novel’s protagonists, Adam Fenwick-Symes and Nina Blount, are initially engaged to be married, but when misfortune strikes and Adam finds himself short of funds, they are forced to call off the wedding. Adam desperately searches for more money, with mixed success, leading him to come into contact with a range of colourful characters as the wheel of fortune turns on... Vile Bodies is the second novel published by Evelyn Waugh, and firmly established him as one of the era’s most prominent novelists. Find out everything you need to know about Vile Bodies in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Publisher Description

English writer Evelyn Waugh was an expert satirist and an accomplished novelist; Evelyn Waugh was the second son of the late Arthur Waugh, publisher and literary critic, and brother Alec Waugh, the famous novelist. He was educated at Lancing and Hertford College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. In 1927 published his first work, a life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and in 1928 his first novel, Decline, and Fall, which was an immediate success. He spent the next nine years without abode, traveling in most parts of Europe, the near east, Africa, and tropical America. In 1939 he was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to Horse Guards. His best-known books before Brideshead Revisited were A Handful of Dust, a novel, and Edmund Campion. In 1942 he published Put Out More Flags, and then in 1945, Brideshead Revisited, When the Going was Good, The Loved One, Preceded Men at War, which came out in 1952 as the first volume in the Sword of Honor Trilogy and won the James Trial Black Prize. The Other Volumes, Officers and Gentlemen, and Unconditional Surrender were published in 1955 and 1961. In 1964 he published A little Learning, the first volume of an autobiography. Evelyn Waugh was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1930, and his earlier biography of Elizabethan Jesuit Martyr Edmund Campion was awarded the Hawthorne Prize in 1936.