Theology of the Body

Care of Souls provides an account of Christianity's historical practices of soul care through a culmination of his many years of scholarship, teaching and clinical work.

As a college student, there have been late nights where I have prioritized the care of my mind over my body. As I have contemplated whether it is good to compromise the health of my body for the sake of good grades, I have considered what the importance of the body really is. Studying Theology of the Body has taught me that understanding the physical body is of vital importance because it’s how we understand ourselves fully as the hylomorphic beings God created to be. As Gaudium et Spes 24:3 furthers, in knowing ourselves, we can then be sincere gifts of self, which is what God willed for us to be. JPII also further states that it’s in knowing oneself, body and soul, that one can best understand the goodness of the rest of creation. Additionally,

The human body has been coupled with various beliefs for all of history. It has been the centre and representation for questions of ethics, power and sexuality. Works like “Confession” by Linh Dinh have found ways to express these questions further. By focusing on questioning how the body operates in art, Dihn portrays and inquires a whole belief system as to how the body functions and is viewed in society.

Each chapter has three or more subsections except for his Conclusion. Finally he has included an excellent Select bibliography with 100+/- references and a very extensive Index of Biblical References.

The question as to what it means to be human is often thought of as being the foundational question for almost all religions. Indeed, it can be argued that the religious impulse itself is first and foremost an impulse to understand the nature the meaning of life, and therefore of what it means to be human. Despite the importance of this question, the Bible provides relatively few answers, other than the idea that to be human is to be in some way close to God and to have been created by Him. This closeness and the nature of having been created has a variety of consequences which this paper will explore. These consequences that can be seen to be intensely positive but which also come with a heavy price and with a strict legality. Finally, they may also be shown to be entirely arbitrary and to position their unfathomable nature on the fact of having the 'created ' nature of a person.

     Man's knowledge of good and evil gives us the power to rule the world any way we please. A God or Gods no longer have control. Once Adam, who represents the life of the human race, took a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge man's fate was sealed. This knowledge insured, "Man was born to rule the world" (165).

[…the Creator ‘made them male and female...] ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mathew 19.5-6).

Edwards’ begins his writing by further commenting of Peter’s words on persecutions. Further explain how trials of one’s faith serve as opportunities for a Christian to achieve true virtue and to test whether one’s religion is true or false. If one’s has true religion successful response to trials further purifies, refines, and increases her religion. Edward remarks, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” (141). Edwards further defines affection as one’s ability to follow the inclination of one’s soul. The soul holds two faculties: the first facility holds the task of understanding. The second facility controls inclination. Edwards reveals the physiological connection of our body and affections stating: “from

The body is the vessel in which an individual carries out their pursuit of the good life. One's current body and their attitudes towards it can reflect their answer towards the question of this course.

The beginning of the Bible is Genesis. The Gospel of Genesis tells the story of God making heaven and earth creation and making us. Through the story of our ancestors Adam and Eve, I will talk about the creation of the majors. Jesus said that the marriage of Adam and Eve in Genesis was the right order of creation (Matthew 19: 4-5). In Genesis 18, He believed that it was essential for Adam to have a partner which motivated God to create Eve. This means that God is not designed to live alone. God created humans to be social animals, that is, to depend on each other and live in society. I think this is the man and woman order and the reason God planned for our lives. One-on-one

about our eternal nature, our divine heritage, and our development as individuals in the premortal

The results of hypersexualizing and instant gratification are lack of interest towards religion and the search for authenticity. Classical philosophy defines the body as separate from the soul as the body was interpreted as a burden, whereas the soul was noble. Valorization of the body is ever so present in our century when we come to realize that it is now exhibited, bared, and transformed in consumers' goods. It now dominates

In terms of the Orthodox doctrine of theosis, the problem with transhumanist discourse is not that it desires to become god-like—a desire implied in Orthodox soteriology and in JPII’s “theandric humanism” (71)—it is rather that its desire involves instrumental mastery over the flesh and, thus, divinity only by “ceasing to be human” (72). Hart’s reflection also inspired a cluster of questions: is a certain human exceptionality is implied in JPII’s theology of the body—and whether such an exceptionality is contrastively related to creation? What views are opened up by theological commitments to materiality that refuse to make our creational and creaturely others instruments to our own practices of consumption? Furthermore, how far can a principle of non-instrumentality be stretched? Does killing life count as instrumentalizing life? Or, do we simply “subsist in the death” of others—as some contemporary ethicists have it? How do these considerations matter for the ethics of consumption? Finding ourselves in networks of force and violence, how might practices of (say) confession and lamentation serve as proleptic anticipations of new

The spiritual significance of illness and suffering is a topic Christians continue to grapple with, as Larchet points out in The Theology of Illness. Scripture offers a wealth of wisdom and cues for understanding illness, health, and healing from a Christian perspective. Larchet analyzes the various and often contradictory Christian positions on health and illness, revealing how attitudes have shifted over time and with changes in medical technology, practice, and ethics. For example, St. Barsanuphius presents a comprehensive analysis of the spiritual significance of illness and suffering. One view holds that illness signifies a lack of faith; another presents illness in terms of a person who is offered the opportunity to develop a stronger faith, or whose faith is being put to a test like the story of Job. Ultimately, the latter remains the most helpful way to approach illness and healing from a Christian perspective. The essence of Christian health care is that, "Healing itself, while resulting from natural processes, actually comes from God," (Larchet 116).

My understanding is that some scrutiny means the third way. Early leaders rejected the grip of catholic church state control over people's lives. Their ideas and insistence on separation between church and state is an attempt for the third way. We still believe that all mankind, because of Adam's fall, has inherited a sinful nature, and all people are sinful, and any sin is exceedingly offensive to God. With sins came the gross social inequality, the wars and despotism, that curse our existence. For most of our life we supported ourselves by the belief that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Our life is a life that the masses have traditionally regarded as nasty, brutish, and short full with fears and blindness to see ourselves in unexpected places. We deceive ourselves when we think that we have to protect God standards. God is bigger than our imperfect interpretations which are based on fears. God and the people do not have the same perspectives on how to live life. There are many kinds of fears such as fears. The fear of God must become a basis for us. Another fear is the fear of shame about our bodies, our instincts, and our behaviors. My understanding is that the body of Christ like any human body performed different functions for different behaviors but there was no part who can say to another part I do not need you. When the body parts was first made, all the body parts wanted to be boss. The Brain, the Feet, the Hands, the Eye, and so it went with the Heart, the Ear, and the Lungs, then the last opening in the digestive system spoke up and demanded to be the boss. All the body parts laughed at the idea. We all know when that opening is blocked and refused to function. Soon, all body parts strive to keep just working, then every part is satisfied to let that part be the boss.