“Christ Who is Our Peace”: Ephesians 2 and a Theological Ontology of Place

Chapter 2 of the Epistle to the Ephesians is teeming with allusions to place. In this paper, we offer a reading of the chapter that gestures toward a theological ontology of place. We argue that the Christian imagination of place and its boundaries is characterized by incorporation into the wounded, self-giving body of Christ. By analyzing the ways place shows up throughout the chapter, we develop elements of an ontology of place that takes account of the complex interweaving of the gentiles’ change of place from outside to inside Israel, the church’s place of participation in Christ’s body, the church’s new standing in relation to other sociopolitical and spiritual realities, and the radical claim that Christ himself is the place of the church.