It is frequently difficult to remember that this is a book blog and not a theology blog and I’m frequently tempted to engage with the teaching presented in a book, rather than talking about a book as a book. This is one of those times…I ended up deleting about 5 paragraphs from this (and was gearing up to write more when I remembered what I was supposed to be writing).
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What God Has to
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What’s What God Has to Say about Our Bodies About?
At the center of the Christian faith is the belief that by coming to earth as one of us, Christ could die for our sins, rise to new life, bring us into fellowship with God, and begin the process of putting right all that’s gone wrong. But at the center of that claim, tucked away where we don’t always see it, is the notion that to become one of us, Jesus had to become flesh. To become a human person, he needed to become a human body.
Become a body, not simply don one for a few years…
Bodies matter. Jesus couldn’t become a real human person without one. And we can’t hope to enjoy authentic life without one either. That his body matters is proof that mine and yours do too. He became what he valued enough to redeem. He couldn’t come for people without coming for their flesh and without coming as flesh.
From the foundation that bodies matter, that humans aren’t just souls trapped in bodies, but are bodies with souls, Allberry sketches out a theology of the body. Something that the Western Church just hasn’t thought a lot about recently.
He discusses things like: identiry, sex, gender, disease, death, the body and discipleship, resurrection. There isn’t a lot of Law in these pages (though it’s not antinomian), as the subtitle says, it’s about the Gospel and what it means for our bodies (both in weakness and in promised renewal).
High Points
Hardwired into most of us is some sense that we all get what we deserve. So it is easy to apply that mindset to sickness and infirmity and wonder if the suffering isn’t some sort of payback for sins. But Jesus is unequivocal in his response: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents” (John 9:3). We’re not to extrapolate from someone’s suffering what they might have done to deserve it. It doesn’t work like that. The main connection between suffering and sin is at a general, humanity-wide level rather than at an individual level. It is not that one person’s suffering is a sign of his or her sin, but that anyone’s suffering is a sign of everyone’s sin.
While reading the book and when I sat down to write this, I had in mind two specific chapters to mention, but flipping through it, I almost doubled the list (and there was a danger I’d have gone further). Basically, I’m saying there’s a lot to like here.
But let’s get back to the highpoints of the book—I’m going to stick with my original plan and mention chapters 1 and 5.
Chapter 1, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: The Body and its Creator,” is one of those things that I wish everyone would read. It’s foundational for this book, and a vital reminder that our bodies are made and made for a purpose.
“Subjected to Futility: The Body, Affliction, and Shame,” Chapter 5, is similarly foundational—in a fallen world, each of us is confronted daily by the weakness of the body—affliction, sickness, and even shame. Some of the problems discussed in this book aren’t things that we all struggle with—and even with the certainty of death for all of us, it’s clear that in the West we’re pretty good at denying that. But weakness? Sickness? Infirmity? We’ve all dealt with that—deal with it all the time, and seeing that in Scriptural light, in terms of the Gospel, is just so helpful.
So, what did I think about What God Has to Say about Our Bodies?
We need to know this. In too many areas of our discipleship we have separated our Christianity from our bodies. There are areas of our physical life that we think are irrelevant to our faith, and there are parts of our Christian life that we think have nothing to do with our bodies.
The truth is that the New Testament often speaks of discipleship in bodily terms, and in ways that tend to surprise us…These things are not trivial or spiritually irrelevant. The problem many of us have is that we are oblivious to their spiritual significance; we don’t see them as part of our discipleship and service to God.
I’ve read a few books by Allberry (and my wife owns a couple I haven’t gotten to yet), and this is noticeably longer and goes a bit deeper than he normally writes, but still, it’s an introductory volume. So I’m left wanting a little more.
That said, it’s an introductory discussion The Church (and others) need. The contemporary Church’s teaching on the body, on physical-ness is so narrow, so negative*, so deficient that it’s pointless. This is a good corrective. It’s only a first step, but we need to start somewhere. Regardless, Allberry’s writing is crisp, clear, engaging–the prose flows smoothly and the ideas are clear.
* Basically “taste not, touch not” kind of things.
I do wonder if Allberry had gone a little deeper if I’d quibble more or even downright disagree with him on some things, but here? I just spent time appreciating that he was addressing topics and ideas that I haven’t really seen done before. I do strongly recommend this—not as a final word, but as the beginning of a course of study (now I just have to figure out where to go from here).
Introductory and basic or not—I really commend this to your attention.
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