Simon Cox Blog: This Is My Body: How Christian Theology Affects Body Image

Wednesday 26 October 2016

This Is My Body: How Christian Theology Affects Body Image

Two studies examine the intersection of the Bible and body shaming.

Donald Trump’s controversial comments about women and their bodies, encapsulated in his revived criticism of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and her weight, brought “body shaming” into the many topics under discussion during the 2016 presidential campaign.

More realistic Barbies and a plus-size model in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue provide small signs of progress on body image issues. Yet as politicians like Trump go low, faith can take individuals to a higher body image, new research reveals.

People who consider their body “fearfully and wonderfully made” (in the words of Psalm 139) are significantly more likely to feel good about their bodies, according to a new study.

However, believers who consider the body to be basically sinful are more likely to be ashamed of their body, researchers at Biola University found.

And it is not just today’s young women who are affected.

Over the centuries, some Christians have come to believe that the body is separate from the spirit, and thus a cause of sin that must be controlled. Those believers, observing Jesus’ injunction to cut off a hand rather than go to hell, see the body as largely a source of pollution and temptation.

However, such beliefs have long been deemed heretical by church leaders. Traditional Christian teaching emphasizes the sacredness of the body, and sees body and soul as connected in human beings made in the image of God. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians.

In the Biola study, 243 evangelical and mainline Protestant men and women ages 18 to 80 participated in an online survey. The results are published in the December 2016 issue of the ...