The gods of the body

Concerning the body, CS Lewis suggests that Christians have tended to oscillate uneasily between contemptuous denigration and extravagant deification, whereas what is required is glad and obedient acceptance. In his book The Four Loves, he says that broadly speaking there are three different views of the body. There are “the Neo-pagans—the nudists and the sufferers from the Dark Gods, to whom the body is glorious”. Then there are those ascetic Pagans who called it the “tomb of the soul”, along with some Christians to whom the body is “a sack of dung”. And, thirdly, we have the view of Francis of Assisi, expressed by calling his body “Brother Ass”—useful and sturdy, but obstinate and in need of the stick.

In this article, I briefly consider these three views, under the more formal titles of the naturalistic view, the dualistic view, and the biblical view.

Naturalistic views—the idolatry of the body

We are all made in the image of God and therefore each one of us is of infinite worth and value in his sight. A sign in a US black ghetto read: “I know that I'm a somebody, 'cause God don't make no trash“. But this sign in the ghetto betrays terror—without God, we can be reduced to trash. Naturalistic views of the body reduce us, but in many different ways. I would like to draw our attention to five current idolatrous cults in the form of different ancient ‘deities’ and idols.

1. Nimrod (the worship of war)

Nimrod was a Babylonian war deity (war god) of the second millennium (Gen10:8-12). He was the Semitic precursor to the Greek and Roman gods Neptune and Mercury, the warrior gods of the sea and the sky. When we are refer to people as consumer products, unemployment statistics, sex objects or fodder for war games, we are worshipping Nimrod. When we exterminate Jews in World War II, liquidate the opposition under Stalin's Russia or allow the genocide of 1-2 million Cambodians, we are sacrificing to Nimrod. Through sheer exercise of power Nimrod bends or breaks another body, to feed, to fuel or to gratify himself, his clan or nation. Nimrod is the god of violence and the god of terrorism, the god of unwarranted aggression against another. Nimrod is an omnipresent deity. His cult is alive and well today, 9/11 being perhaps the latest evidence.

In contrast, in the redeemed community, strength is being made perfect in weakness. Not by power but by my Spirit, says the Lord. We ascend in his condescension. Indeed, Paul in Romans 12 encourages us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We as Christians live not by might but by his Spirit and his Word.

2. Narcissus (the worship of self)

Narcissus is not a god but a character in Greek mythology. One day he went for a walk in the forest and discovered his image—his reflection—in a pool, and fell in love with it. Absorbed in self-fascination, he worships himself alone. All that is needed is a closet and mirror, a hot tub, a spa or a reflecting pool. Narcissism is personal self-adoration and discomfort with others (I am my body, goes the modern litany; I possess my body and am fascinated by it). Consequently, Narcissus seeks proper grooming, subtle hues of appropriate cloth and tint; the body beautiful—coiffed, manicured, dieted, somewhere between anorexia and obesity with a light beer in the hand. Notice how natural and attractive is Narcissism in today's advertisements. $400 jogging velvets, Special K for breakfast, and a visit to the gym after work. It is a fascination with self, and especially with one's own body.

For the Christian, there is no pleasure in self-absorption, nor in being alone; rather the redemption of narcissism is togetherness. We are related to others as we are members of the body of Christ. Paul uses this body image in 1 Corinthians 12 to highlight that are made to relate to others, with Christ being the head of the body. The body parts are related and we are together in Christ. For the Christian, life is other-person centred and not self-centred. Mirror man is reduced to endless abstractions and refractions. Jesus, on the other hand, encourages us to solidarity and togetherness in community and not self-idolatry.

3. Natura (the worship of athleticism)

Natura is neither a god nor mythical figure. Nevertheless, Natura is the most alluring of all ‘gods’. Through it we seek health and happiness. At a fundamental level, Natura is served by the god of athleticism, the icon that is performed every Saturday or Sunday at stadiums around the world. On the Sunday Big League, the high holy day, we ascend to the sacred place, unveil the small ark thatglows and speaks, and watches the forces of light and darkness contend! When the dust at last clears, the Knights and not the Broncos receive the garlands, shoes, cars, and jewelled rings such as those first left in the Egyptian tombs for the sun god Ra.

In contrast, Jesus claimed that one who would be well (in other words made whole or saved) must give over and not cling to this life. We must lose our life for Jesus' sake in order that we might find life. It is not longevity, but eternal life that the gospel is all about. Surely, health is an instrumental value. But we discipline our bodies and minds in order that these bodies may be instrumental to the achievement of divine harmony in this discordant world. A healthy, magnificent Christian body is one that has been used to help ameliorate the pain and tragedy of the present age.

4. Nephilim (the worship of perfectibility)

Genesis speaks of giants on the earth, the sons of God and daughters of men in Genesis 6:4. The Nephilim represent the cult of physical perfection: humans seeking to be gods. For the Nephilim, knowledge plus technique (or technology) is the highest indication into the mysteries of reality and deity. Here, biological substances become the elixirs of life and the antidotes to sin. Genetic medicine, fetal therapy and prenatal interventions give us power to save, to salvage or to scrap our formative bodies. Eugenic medicines seek to perfect the body. The body magnificent becomes the body fixable, with interchangeable parts from the body shop of modern medicine. Heart transplants, kidney transplants and so on. The Nephilim are the gods of divisibility and bio-mechanical perfectibility.

We all want lasting and working bodily parts, but for the Christian it is quality of life that we have with Jesus. Our bodies are meant for the Lord, however old and creaky they may become as we age. We know that we will one day have a completely new body; not just an old body with some else's body parts or transplanted organs keeping us going, but a completely new, resurrected body. In contrast to the god of divisibility and biomechanical perfectibility, Christians trust in transformation in Christ by his Spirit and his Word and are assured of perfection one day.

5. Venus (the worship of sex)

The English writer D. H. Lawrence once claimed, “Give me the body and I will give it life; I believe the life of the body is a greater reality than the life of the mind ... the human body is only just coming to real life. With the Greeks he claimed it gave a lovely flicker, then Plato and Aristotle killed it and Jesus finished it off, but now the body is really coming to life”. Little wonder then that some of Lawrence's novels were censored at first. But pornographic films, magazines and books are now common place and constitute a multimillion dollar industry.

To make an idol of sex is to degrade love into lust and to turn sex into sensuality. It is perhaps the most obvious form of idolatry of the body.

These then are five ‘body cults’ that today attract our worship. They attract us because, like all heresy, they contain an element of truth. Nimrod, Narcissus, Natura, Nephilim and Venus are all worthy of some respect when they become subject to Jesus, the Lord of our body and soul, the Lord of our life and death. But without God, like the ghetto sign suggested, they turn us into trash.

Dualistic views—the body is evil

The alternative to naturalistic views of the body is the view that the body is in fact evil—it is not ‘natural’, it is the thing which is holding humanity back. There are two great schools here.

1. Pythagoreans

Pythagorus did more than determine the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle. The Pythagoreans had a very low view of the body and they even had a Greek jingle which affirmed it: “soma-sema”, which means “the body is a tomb”. The body is a house of detention in which the soul is imprisoned to expiate sin. Another Greek thinker referred to himself as a “poor soul shackled to a corpse”.

2. Gnostics

One of early Christian heretical sects was the Gnostics, who were concerned for special knowledge and revelation. For the Gnostics, the body was more than a matter of unhappy regret; it was a source of contamination and an invitation to sin For example, Marcion urged his followers to escape corruption and the degradation of the body either by embracing celibacy or by practising abstinence within marriage. Gnostics they saw their bodies—and in particular sexual union—as evil and degraded.

Not only were some of these sects negative towards the body; so was the church Father, Tertullian. He once informed his wife that between marriage and fornication there was merely a legal and not an intrinsic difference, since the shameful act that constitutes its essence is the same as fornication. The morbid fear of sex explains why it was that so many of the Fathers sought to suppress all natural affection. This affected the medieval view of the body and sex for the next thousand years and contributed to the rise of Monasticism and celibacy.

The biblical view—neither denigration nor deification

The Bible lends no support to the defamation of the body or its deification. We are made both body and spirit. God made us as we are. He made us from the dust of the ground. We are earthy creatures. In 1 Corinthians 6:13, the apostle Paul says that the body is not for fornification (sexual immorality) but for the Lord. In Romans 12, Paul encourages us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice as unto the Lord. Again, in 1 Corinthians 7:31, Paul suggests that the body is to be disciplined and dedicated to God's service. It is to be rightly used and not abused. The body is a gift.

1 Timothy 4:4 tells us everything created by God is good. The apostle insists on this—nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. The body as part of God's creation is good and not nasty; it is to be received and not rejected; it is to be honoured and treated with respect. Martin Luther puts it in an illuminating way, by pointing out that our Lord, who was sinless, had a body and that the devil, who is sinful is without a body!

The body is not, as the Greeks taught, a tomb. Rather, in the words of Paul, “the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19). In verse 20 he encourages us to glorify God with our bodies. It is not the language of dualism, dirty and disgusting; on the contrary, it is a thing of excellent beauty. Or in the words of Psalm 139, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made”. The body is a marvellous piece of medical machinery made by the living God.

The body is an essential part of humankind's constitution. Having made man from the ground he breathed into his nostrils and the man became a living being. Thus we ought not to think of man as an incarnated soul but rather as an animated body. Man's body is not an encumbrance and a hindrance of the soul; on the contrary, it is an essential and necessary part of our being. Unlike the Greeks who believe in the immortality of the soul, biblical Christians assert in the Apostle's Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body”. A new resurrected body is the Christian hope and faith (1 Cor 15). Let us seek to avoid all manner of heresy regarding the body, whether denying its value or worshipping its many gods.

Study questions

These questions may help you to apply some of the thinking in this article to current issues which relate to the body. If we are neither to despise nor to deify our bodies, how will we approach the following subjects?

Ask yourself two questions as you think about each issue:

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1. How does the gospel affect out thinking on this issue?
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2. What biblical material is relevant?
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• Nudity in art (film, painting, photography, sculpture)
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• Sports and recreation (what role should they play in our lives?)
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• Food and dieting
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• Women's fashions (e.g. low cut dresses, men's swimmers, etc)
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• Sex jokes, pornography, etc
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• Swearing which is derogatory about the body
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