Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice

Those who are on the Christian journey with the intention of filling our humanity with a graciousness and truthfulness like Christ's sometimes fall prey to the notion that what God wants of us is for us to live as if we are disembodied spirits. If that mistaken notion has been nagging at you, this book by Stephanie Paulsell is a helpful corrective. "Honoring the Body" offers some outstanding suggestions as to how to do exactly what the tile says. As the author states, "My hope is that by reflecting on our bodies in everyday life we might cultivate a mindfulness about our own bodies and a more attentive consciousness about the bodies of others." (Page xv) Paulsell teaches at Harvard Divinity School and is a Disciples of Christ pastor. From her mainstream Christian perspective comes this book, divided into nine chapters that help us see the many routines of life, bathing, clothing, nourishing the body, and the like, as more than just routine. In the initial chapter of the book, Paulsell encourages the reader to awaken to a scared vulnerability. This means remembering that we are frail, like dust, we each have the potential to see our body as a sacred gift, a gift so precious that when God made our bodies God called them good and that we are made in the image of God. Paulsell also reminds us that the Apostle Paul uses the analogy of the human body for the body that is that Church of Jesus Christ--made of many different parts that are to work together for the benefit of all. Paulsell's final chapter, on honoring the suffering body, is a powerful witness to the gifts of those who care for others who are in pain. She makes it clear that it is both a vocational path of great challenge and difficulty and also a high and holy calling.

Paulsell's book is comforting and liberating at the same time. A must read for any Christian. Highly recommended!

Everyone with a body should read this book. After reading Paulsell's book "Honoring the Body" you will never bathe or dress, eat or drink, run or walk, rest or make love in the same way. You will look with care into yourself as embodied and find the sacredness that God put into you and your body from the moment of your birth. Armed with this new experience of God as intimately with you in your embodied life, you without a doubt will experience sacredness in the everyday tasks of living an embodied life. The intimate journey through embodied life Paulsell's invites you to take I guarantee will change you to the point that you will revisit this book often because the truth of which it speaks is remarkable and as I have said life changing.

Paulsell's down-to-earth language and vivid imagery make it immediately accessible. And her way of talking about everyday bodily activities draws you right in as a reader and makes you feel wiser, as if you've just had a wonderful conversation with a close friend. I recently used this book in leading a retreat for college students. They connected deeply with every chapter we explored, from "Clothing the Body" to "Honoring the Sexual Body." I've given a copy of this book to my 80-year-old mother and plan to give my 14-year-old son a copy as well. "Honoring the body" is a full-orbed practice that offers young and old people alike so much more than well-intended slogans such as "Just Say No" or "Practice Safe Sex"!