Love Thy Body is an extended consideration of what a Christian ethic of the body is. Pearcey contrasts the Christian and the dualistic contemporary Western understanding of the body. She then navigates how these distinctive views of the body play themselves out in everything from abortion to euthanasia to understanding gender and sexuality.
Who respects the body more? Christians or the world? I bet most Americans would answer that the world loves the body more than Christians do. After all, the world celebrates its sexuality and supports going after whatever our body desires. Many will judge their Valentine’s Day on whether it was a day they got what they desire.
Ours is an age of affirmation, and our bodies appear to be the object of that unquestioned affirmation.
But what if it isn’t true that our world truly values our bodies? What would it mean for issues such as gender and abortion if the Christian ethic is actually the worldview that honors the body most deeply?
Ethicist Nancy Pearcey believes that the Christian view of the body honors it while our contemporary Western world actually devalues the body. In Love Thy Body, Pearcey has written one of the most important books a thoughtful Christian ought to read to wisely navigate the modern world.
Love Thy Body is an extended consideration of what a Christian ethic of the body is. Pearcey contrasts the Christian and the dualistic contemporary Western understanding of the body. She then navigates how this distinctive views of the body play themselves out in everything from abortion to euthanasia to understanding gender and sexuality.
Pearcey audaciously declares that a Christian ethic grants the body more value than a secular perspective. How is that? Christianity affirms our embodiment. “But the truth is that Christianity has a much more respectful view of our psycho-sexual identity. It is not anti-sex, it is pro-body.” Christianity believes that we will not “fly away” from our bodies, but will live eternally in resurrected bodies. Christianity affirms the scientific reality of our bodies, from our personhood in the womb to our biological sex.
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