One in Soul and Body

In Dawne Moon's book, God, Sex, and Politics, light is shed on the dichotomy that the body and the soul play for some religious organizations. In thinking about this week's theological question: Are bodies and sexuality essential parts of being human - or are we merely souls inhabiting bodies? I was intrigued by the conversations within the book and the dialogue that I had with them through my own tradition. While the author meets individuals who profess the differences between "godly spirit and sinful body" (148) and views that sexuality is not a "gift from God" (152), she maintains that people can be "both spiritual and physical at once (148). Moon's case study of the body in theological anthropology describes an attempt to reconcile the church as a spiritual 'safe-haven' from the 'evils of the body.' Sexuality attributed to body connotes that which is sinful, yet I contend that body as the conduit for soul is spiritual and not innately sinful.

The church creates a "place of refuge from...the anxieties provoked by bodies" (149). It is a place that transcends bodies, yet homosexuality as part of the category of physical seems to continue to be problematic. Moon develops the topic further in regards to marriage: "Indeed, if marriage is supposed to be spiritual, then it is supposed to transcend bodies" (157). And if transcendence is the goal, body and soul are in a sense turned into one. The human body is a physical element in a complex spiritual being. The body in this case is not just a storage facility, a vessel with which to hold the soul, but rather it is an integral part of the soul. One might argue that the body was a physical "gift from God," and through this physical body one is able to perform deeds and through those actions attain the spiritual. Moon mentions the gloss with which sex is talked about or not talked about in a religious setting, and begs the question, 'why is sex separated from prayer?' She mentions that we thank God for food not to mention a host of other physical wants and needs, yet sex is not a topic God wants to have a discussion on. When we pray we use our mouths and our thoughts, and when we help someone in need we use our hands and our emotions; when we are in a committed relationship we use our bodies with our souls - The body and the soul are forever connected.

Without this harmonious relationship, one could never attain the holiness (or closeness with God) one can through prayer, good deeds, and loving kindness. The body is a gift to be protected; it is the physical counterpart of the soul. Through true recognition of self one can bring soul and body into everyday events.