Christians can often have a strange relationship with the body. Certain Christian traditions have treated the body as if it is no more than a shell for the soul, a material self that is of little importance when compared to the immaterial self. Other Christian traditions have treated the body as if it is of paramount importance and far more consequential than the soul—“Follow the whims and desires of your body, for it reveals your truest self.” Yet as we look to Scripture, we can see that both body and soul matter tremendously to the Lord. This being the case, both ought to matter tremendously to the believer.
Lainey Greer has written an interesting and helpful book that is meant to ask and answer this question: Does the body matter to God? Or perhaps better said: Does your body matter to God? I’m sure you will not be surprised to learn that she believes the body matters very much to God.
In the closing chapters of Embodied Holiness, Greer gets very practical by offering a series of measures any Christian can take to preserve and increase the health of their body. She explains the importance of diet, the need for rest, and the necessity of managing stress, for example. While she does not lay out complete nutritional plans or exhaustive exercise regimens, she does go to some lengths to express her concerns about how many Christians today are unhealthy and to explain why caring for our bodies is an important part of honoring God. In fact, caring for our bodies is not at all at odds with caring for our souls. “Notwithstanding illnesses, disabilities, and disorders that naturally result from the fallen world, a vibrant, faithful Christian life reckons physical health necessary to live out God’s calling and to honor him as responsible, embodied image-bearers who steward his magnificent creation of the physical body.”
These practical chapters are premised on several chapters of instruction that relate the Bible’s perspective on the human body. Thus, the practical parts of the book depend upon the theological parts. As ought to be the case, instruction in living follows instruction in doctrine. In these chapters, she explains that spirituality cannot be rightly pursued apart from physicality; that God created human beings as both material and immaterial beings and that there is a close integration between the two; that throughout Scripture God affirms the dignity and importance of the body; and that Christians have historically recognized and celebrated all of this.
Throughout, Greer insists that true holiness must be an embodied holiness, one that pursues the well-being of the soul within a healthy body. At a time when there are so many opportunities to fall into poor habits and when so many Christians are obviously falling into them, that is a message that needs to be heard. Embodied Holiness is an important contribution because it does not merely suggest a solution, but premises it on a biblical basis. I hope many will read it and follow its counsel.
