The Good, the Bad, and the Body: Body Part Imagery as Patristic Metaphor for Vice and Virtue

Body parts, and their veneration as relics, were an important devotional focus in late antique Christianity. These body parts were seen as a locus of power and sanctity which continued to exert influence over the world in their vicinity. Patristic authors used images of various body parts (hair, right hands vs. left hands, genitalia, gender, old age) as metaphors for both good and evil, virtue and vice. The inner reality of a person's spirit would not always be obvious in this world but would be revealed in the world to come, often by the condition of these various body parts when the body was resurrected at the Last Judgment.