Human Body
- Michael Haldas
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
“The tendency toward dualism in Greek and Persian philosophy was rooted in a worldview that pits the highest, spiritual reality against the lowest, physical reality. As such, the human body would be more akin to evil because it is material, and the soul more akin to goodness because it is immaterial. In such a schema, God represents the top of the hierarchy and must be shielded from direct contact with all those levels of existence beneath Him. Dualism directly contradicts biblical revelation. The dualist sees the human soul alone as capable of purity while they consider the body vile and unredeemable.” (Fr. Joseph Lucas)
“In the Church, nothing is only spiritual, because everything presupposes the participation of the human body.” (Anestis Keselopoulos)
“So much of the thrust of the Church teachings have to do with encouraging us to overcome worldly lusts. So much of our culture’s media is designed to do the opposite: To convince us that what the Bible and Jesus Christ warn against is in fact natural…For sure, Christianity is not saying that the human body is evil—but that it can be used in ways that are evil. Our flesh has its urges, and they can be contrary to our best interests. Within every believer are certain cravings, and they can cause us great problems because they contradict the purity of our whole beings and eventually destroy what is intended for godliness. We should not be discouraged or think we are sinful when we are tempted, because as long as we are alive we shall be dealing with challenges from our bodies—in Greek sarx, meaning flesh. But the Holy Spirit leads us to conquest over the flesh.” (Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky)
“One of the ways that resurrection makes a profound difference in our thinking about the body is by addressing the twin errors of idealization and contempt. Both these errors are widespread in our culture and feed off each other symbiotically. When we idealize the body, we end up fixating on the purely physical aspects of ourselves, which leads us to treat our own body, and the bodies of others, as mere objects. This, in turn, feeds passions like pride, lust, immodesty, comparison, and the cult of youth. Idealization of the body lies behind the images that assault us in advertising and the media, with their restrictive stereotypes for what constitutes beauty, strength, and desirability.” (Robin Phillips)
“Before Christ, there were two main points of view on the human body. The first one saw it solely as a source of pleasure. The other, on the contrary, denied the body altogether, claiming that the body was a source of impurity and vice, a prison for the soul, from which a wise person must certainly break free. The dispute between these two opinions went on for many centuries. The issue was resolved only when God Himself, having been incarnated and become a man, appeared in our world. Christians believe that not only the souls, but also the bodies of righteous people will enter the Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, the body is understood as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, our bodily nature was corrupted because of Adam’s fall; but Christ came to earth precisely to restore the original dignity of human nature, and He truly restored it with His Incarnation, sacrifice on the Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension. Thus, the Ascension became the most important link in the salvation and glorification of fallen man. Christ ascended bodily and took His equal place next to God the Father, thereby confirming the same possibility for the entire human race.” (Hieromonk Laurus Arkhipov)
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