Embodied Holiness: The Biblical Call to Bodily Care

As embodied, soul and body beings, Christians are commanded to glorify God in our bodies (1 Cor 6:20) and called to obedience in both spiritual and physical matters. Still, the overarching Christian tendency is to misunderstand embodiment, which often manifests in elevating the soul and devaluing the body. This hierarchical thinking reveals itself in activities that downplay the body’s worth, a longstanding issue with Gnostic roots that Paul tackled in the Corinthian church. His countermeasure against the licentious behavior of these anti-body believers was to highlight Trinitarian involvement with the body. This view was meant to correct misconceptions about the body’s value and provide a foundation that prescribes God-honoring behaviors. By this same foundation today, believers can confront body-neglecting behaviors within the church and body-denying beliefs in the culture, all of which are rooted in neo-Gnosticism. Therefore, this book will consider a variety of arguments to build the case that the body matters to God, a fundamental recognition that drives his children towards embodied holiness as lights in a disembodied, dark world.