October 26, 2001

Ouch! Pain as a Remedy for What Ails the Spirit

By JEFF SHARLET

It hurts to be alive. The trick, most religions teach, is to transform that hurt into something useful, to make the profanity of suffering holy. In Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul (Oxford University Press), Ariel Glucklich, a theologian at Georgetown University, takes the measure of pain and finds it meaningful.

Q.What kinds of pain might be considered sacred?

A. There are so many it's hard to list. There are mystics who cut themselves or prick themselves