Christianity Produces a Sound Soul and Sound Body

Science does a wonderful job making my body healthy.

That is good, but religion can do something better. Christianity cures my soul so that I can live well as a whole person.

After all, bad men are not blessed when they have good health. Sound bodies just give them a greater chance to harm others and deeply harm their own souls. As many great saints demonstrate, cure the soul and a man or woman can make a great life out of very trying physical circumstances.

Jesus Christ made my sick soul well.

What is more important than that?

America fixates on physical health, but a man with a fit body and a bad heart is worse than a cheerful smile that comes with fetid breath. The beauty of the outer is spoilt by the grossness of the inner.

A sound body with a sick soul does not profit a person. Not surprisingly a sound soul will, generally, produce a healthier body. The two are closely interrelated.

Christianity is good for you physically. There is more to understanding God’s creation and how we should relate to it than the nutrition label on the back of your “food product” can tell you. Moreover, except for those whose secular fundamentalism limits their perspective, there is sufficient evidence that miracles of physical healing actually occur—something I have personally experienced.

However, spiritual formation is not primarily about physical wellness. Fixing the body is temporary while healing the soul is forever.

You and I are going to sicken and physically die. Given the way things are (due to bad human choices) that is a very good thing and is a major part of God’s severe mercy on humankind. As we are, living forever would grow stale and tedious. As Tennyson puts it:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

Death is coming and pretending otherwise is the ignorant cowardice of childish minds.

Part of that preparation is sacrifice for others, doing one’s duty in difficult circumstances, and even being willing to lay down life itself for others. Health bought at the cost of dishonor or betrayal of family, country, or God is worthless. A bad man living is worse off than a good man dead. A coward in the peak of health is disgusting to himself and all decent folk, but a hero’s injuries are an honor to himself, his family, his nation, and his God. Every mother’s labor pains remind us that nothing great can be produced in this life without difficulty and sacrifice.

Avoiding all physical difficulty may be attractive, but it is spiritually destructive. A sedated mind that is pain free may, or may not, be less good than a clear mind suffering pain that teaches it depth and charity. Science, limited to is, can never tell us what ought to be done. Our medical doctors need our pastors in order to help with these broader human questions.

Medical science gives religion useful tools, but it is the ethicist and the pastor, experts in human things, that tell us what to do with them. This is as true in medicine as it is in any other area. The medical doctor can tell us how to heal the sick, but only the priest can tell the doctor that he should or should not do so.

C.S. Lewis noted, half a century ago in The Abolition of Man, the growing need for science to work with, not over and above, spheres of human experience and knowledge where it does not hold authority. Of this better science he says, ‘When it spoke of the parts it would remember the whole.’

Most important of all is religion’s role in making a man fit for the world to come. If this life is a preparation for further life to come, as thinkers from Plato, to Aquinas, to Lewis believed it to be, then paying attention to the demands of that future life is important.

Good physical fitness produces health in the body, just as ethical fitness produces health in the soul. Too many Americans ignore nutrition and exercise and then damn their luck when they get ill. Quite a few of us may ignore our spiritual health only to find ourselves simply damned.

Sadly, there are know-nothings in our culture who care only for medical technology, ignoring the wisdom of Christianity in what to do with it. Like television’s Dr. House, they may be brilliant scientists, but bad men. They ignore the words of Jesus and happily save the body while losing their souls. Their error is not in their veneration of medical science, but in the narrowness of their education and concern.

A world without science would be less comfortable. A world without religion would be without meaning. Plato was right when he argued that people with healthy souls live healthier lives both now and in the world to come. The reasonable person cares for both, but prioritizes the heavenly paradise. Only when he can say “it is well with my soul” can he truly be said to be healthy.

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March 27, 2008 abcnews.com
Parents' Faith Fails to Save Diabetic Girl
Cops Mull Charges After 11-Year-Old With Undiagnosed Disease Dies Easter Sunday

Wisconsin authorities will consider filing charges in the case of an 11-year-old girl who died on Easter Sunday of complications from diabetes that went untreated because police say her parents' obscure religious beliefs do not allow medical intervention.

So was like god so busy on Easter Sunday he/she didn't have time to deal with this issue?

Posted by: TommyO | June 16, 2008 7:40 PM
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Does Christianty cure the soul?

Let us put the spotlight on a single- irrefutable fact of the Doctrine of Christianty.

Fact: all humans are born sinful and are redeemed by converting to Christianity.

So it follows that when one see the beautiful, most, most beautiful children playing in the sunshine, then if one is a Christian, one is indoctrined to see such wonderful gifts from God as flawed and sinful.

One may genuinely say, that when such a view of the most incredible gifts that life has to offer is seen and interpreted through the doctrine of the Christain faith, that the Christian faith is nothing less than the very greatest form of psycological sickness.

Christianty: a cure indeed?

Candles lit in the Christian Churches always illuminate the spotless robes of the priests and leaders, but never do they illuminate for their congregation the recesses of their Doctrines darkest sickness.

"Death is coming to all" the author writes. And surely God, the greatest of the greatest Being, somberly awaits us all. But only with greatest RAGE does he await those that consider his most beautiful creations of all ( the children ) as evil, sinful and in need of saving.

Sickness? What sickness?

Posted by: Anonymous | June 12, 2008 8:21 PM
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John,
U say :"Christianity Produces a Sound Soul and Sound Body," but no sound mind AND I would add a hell of lot of dead Muslims and Jews too......

Posted by: Asim, San Antonio | June 12, 2008 4:52 PM
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Forgiveness is for those who have done the crime and don't want to do the time. Here's the recommended by Christian religion way out:

When standing before God be sure to mention you were a party to the crucifixion of His only begotten son and therefore all your violations of God's laws are forgiven. However telling the real God you were a party to the crucifixion of the son of Lucifer could do you some good. But then there's that business of calling the father of Jesus God, not likely to set well with God since Jesus was conceived out of wedlock.

Most likely, that good warm feeling forgiveness brings on comes from the fires of hell.

Conclusion: there is no way out. Do the crime, do the time. The sentence for calling Lucifer God is forever. Why did they leave the sacred scriptures that tells us that out of the Bible?

Posted by: Anonymous | June 12, 2008 2:56 PM
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Brambleton,

You said: "Could I exist as a Christian without the help of my pastor? Probably. But my knowledge of God's word and the hope that comes with that knowledge would be woefully inadequate without my pastor's teachings/sermons."

I think we all need to listen to those more experienced than ourselves, especially teachers, but the danger with assigning someone the role of "pastor" is that you presumably believe they speak for god. Once you assign that role to someone, you are submitting your thoughts to theirs in an unhealthy way. Those who disagree with the pastor are usually made to feel as if they disagreed with god, and the long-term result is often an insular group of people with an elitist attitude believing only they are truly in line with god's will.

It doesn't always happen that way, of course, mostly because people can so easily switch churches these days. Even with our present open marketplace of ideas, however, destructive cults like the polygamous group in Texas still form. And it all begins when you give your spiritual leadership a greater role than that of a teacher.

Posted by: skeptimal | June 12, 2008 12:42 PM
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Ash,

You stated, "Nobody needs pastors." For you personally, that might be accurate. But for those of us whose hope lies in Christianity, there is certainly a need for pastoral leadership. Could I exist as a Christian without the help of my pastor? Probably. But my knowledge of God's word and the hope that comes with that knowledge would be woefully inadequate without my pastor's teachings/sermons.

It's similar to being in a college english literature class. Obviously, when the professor assigned a novel to read, you probably had the reading skills necessary to read the entire book and understand the general concepts. But the professor was there to guide you through the nuances of the book that might not have been so apparent to you. In some ways, a church pastor works the same way.

And you might think about not sterotyping all pastors based on the one's you read or see get into trouble. That's a little foolish.

Not a sermon, just a thought.

Posted by: Brambleton | June 12, 2008 11:19 AM
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Sure Anonymous, lambaste as your will directs you.

Posted by: Lindsay Howerton | June 11, 2008 10:21 PM
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Apparently not, Daniel.

Btw, sometimes big kitties got a sticky thing in their paws... Watch for that. :)

Posted by: Paganplace | June 11, 2008 9:19 PM
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"Christianity Produces a Sound Soul and Sound Body"

Really? Great. OK. You guys been *reaaly* behind on 'production' for some time now.

...

....

...Umm?

..Guys?

Go to it.

Any time now.

Sok.

Really.

Please?

Take all the credit you like, just...

Go!

Come on!

*waving hands encouragingly...*

Here we go...

Any time now....

What, my civil rights are in the way?

I thought it was *holy!*

Come on!

Here we go!

Posted by: Paganplace | June 11, 2008 6:15 PM
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John Mark Reynolds writes: "A world without religion would be without meaning."

Really?

Posted by: TJ | June 11, 2008 5:44 PM
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From: FREEDOM Of The PRESS, NOT CONTROL OF THE PRESS!