Flesh-and-Blood Spirituality
Ruth Haley Barton
April 1, 1999
Only recently have I faced my profound ambivalence about life in a body. Intent on trying to be "spiritual," for years I thought my body warranted little attention. As long as no warning lights were flashing, I could ignore it in favor of "more spiritual" endeavors—silence and solitude, Scripture and prayer, service and self-denial.
Meanwhile, a surrounding culture that valued others primarily for their physicality and sexuality made me even more hesitant to pay much attention to my body. I, for one, wouldn't fall into the excesses of a secular culture that valued external features rather than the beauty and dignity of the human soul reaching towards God.
Yet it is my "spiritual" journey itself that has revealed that the physical and the spiritual are inescapably entwined. I am more than merely soul and spirit; I am an embodied being, and this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). The same Holy Spirit who in Old Testament days came and went, eventually dwelling in a tabernacle made by human hands, now takes residence in the flesh and blood of the redeemed. God inhabits our bodies, making them a place where we can meet and know him.
Learning to honor the body as the place God makes his presence known, then, is part of our spiritual pilgrimage. "The Christian practice of honoring the body is born in the confidence that our bodies are made in the image of God's own goodness," says Dorothy C. Bass in her book, Practicing Our Faith. "As the place where the divine presence dwells, our bodies are worthy of care and blessing and ought never to be degraded or exploited. It is through our bodies that we participate in God's activity in the world."
At the ripe old age of 30, I was tired, lethargic, and somewhat depressed. ...
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