In Christianity, as in many of the great world religions, all of life is believed to be sacred. Mindfulness of soul and body are thought to be paramount to spiritual evolution, and through the cultivation of this mindfulness, one is able to realize consciousness of god and therefore gain entrance into heaven upon death. In far eastern religions, the ultimate goal may be different but nonetheless, respect and cultivation for soul and body insure one's spiritual progress.
It was in this preoccupation that the original church fathers charted a path for Christians to follow so as to reap heavenly benefit. As with other religions, these early priests and saints established precepts or rules so as to foster the spiritual growth of the community. These ascetic tendencies, as pointed out by Ralph B Ballou, Jr., in his essay "Selected Church Fathers to A.D. 394", were of absolute importance to Christianity in the early days of the Church. Behind a regimental lifestyle that shuns carnal pleasure and narcissism, exists the belief in the body and soul of mankind being celestial in origin and very close to if not descending from God. The "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit", writes apostle Paul in Corinthians, "so glorify god in your body". The early Christian view held the body as a sacred vessel for it houses the soul and the mind. Gregor of Nyssa paraphrases the apostle in his now ancient writing, The Making of Man, may the body, soul and spirit be preserved at the coming of the Lord; using the word body for the nutritive part, and denoting the sensitive by the word soul and intellectual by "spirit".The fathers viewed the body as the vehicle of the soul, and through spiritual discipline and cultivation, the two could be refined to create a more "perfect man".
As some may suggest, the body was not viewed as inherently evil in it's natural desires for pleasure, but a potential doer of evil if mindfulness of the Holy Spirit was lost and those desires were acted upon. This paradox is explained in the concept of free will. Man alone, must choose between the desires of the flesh and observing the flesh as sacred. Ballou states"the responsibility for the existence of evil rests with man and his free will for as Athanasis wrote" everyone directs his course according to his will,and either under the pilotage of the word he enters into rest, or ,laid hold on by pleasure, he suffers shipwreck and is in peril by storm...Man's salvation depends on voluntary obedience." In other words, spiritual salvation depends on ones own submission and obedience to god, and shunning of worldly desire. This asceticism is characteristic especially to Eastern religions where monks and various holy people renounce worldly possessions and attachments so as to be more free for the practice of spiritual consciousness
. The Christian fathers taught that physical activity is critical to the fostering of bodily and therefore spiritual health maintenance but should always reflect spiritual mindfulness and be otherwise compatible with Christian worldview. Clement of Alexandria wrote "if physical excercize is engaged in without distracting them from more worthwhile deeds, it is entertaining and not without profit...Christians should not cultivate tricks meant only for display. We should not live for pleasure or immorality". Ballou echoes this early view when he writes "health, correct use of talents, and the right attitude in relationship to God are of upmost importance to the Christian". He quotes Saint. Augustine:"Man is to be taught, too, in what measure to love his body, so as to care for it wisely and within due limits". Christianity viewed health and fitness as a spiritual issue, essential to the development of a fully integrated human. In the religions of the East as well, excercize was and still is in instances, viewed in light of reverence for the spiritual. Zen Buddhists practice walking meditation, Hindus practice yoga and various rigorous asanas. No one who has ever practiced Indian or Chinese martial art would deny the potential for cultivation of health and spiritual awareness in these ancient forms of excercize.
Over the past few centuries, the Industrial and Technological Revolutions have given rise to a completely new perspective regarding the significance of the human body, physical activity and health, opposing and displacing the earlier more spiritualistic view as previously outlined. Industrialization demands that life be viewed as inherently secular. Andrew Kimbrell writes in his article, Body Wars, "the prevailing perspective on our bodies no longer links them to the divine but rather views them through the lens of industrialization and the market places, as machines or commodities." As a result of a global economy that worships industry and technology above all else, people have learned to view the body as an extension of the system in which it operates, as though the human body is nothing more than a biological machine. An industrialized society values efficiency and speed as well as strength. Our social criteria for beauty reflects this belief. One's body is viewed in terms of it's likeness to a machine. If it is strong, slender, able to endure extensive excercize ( as a good bicycle), then it is beautiful. We see the of the body in terms of whether or not they meet certain specifications for attractiveness. The internal organs are like innards in a clock.
It is as though we strive to have bodies that appear able to endure repititious, mechanical, physically demanding behaviors imposed by an industrial society, even if we have no connection to such work. Popular excercize involves excercize for it's sake alone. According to Kimbrell, Americans spend $750 million annually on muscle-building equipment alone. "As a nation we spend more on fitness and cosmetics then on education or social services."
Why? If we don't all participate in strenuous work, what is gained by having only a specified body type be visually pleasing? Nothing. It is only an agreed upon image sold to us by the health and beauty industry. We are taught we should look like Olympic athletes so we go to weight training factories, run on expensive treadmills with expensive shoes, climb simulated staircases, in hopes of cultivating the perfect body. This value is antithesis to the old Christian view as stated by Clement in the quote from page two of this essay, regarding physical excercize and distraction from worthwhile deed and the cultivation of tricks for display. We reshape, carve from, manipulate our bodies for the sake of it's appearance alone. Industrialization is not only anti-christian in it's devaluation of the human body, it is completely anti-spiritual and leaves no room for consideration of the intellect.
The documentary, The Champion Within, demonstrated how scientific technology is enabling athletes to achieve peak performances and continue strenuous excercize later into life. While the obvious benefits of beating old records and maintaining 'super health' seem great, one must also consider what is compromised. The individual athlete is forgotten behind a quagmire of computer calculations, urine samples, analizations and alterations. Improvement can be made but at this point, can all the credit be paid to the athlete? If not, then what is the point? Ballou mentions a loss of esteem for the original Olympiad of ancient Greece, after "the concept of totality of the individual was lost as training techniques emphasized the development of the parts of the body necessary for success". Athletes are farmed like cattle, who wants to watch a cow break running and jumping records?
The movement from a spiritual towards a secular way of viewing the body has permitted science and industry to have free reign with it, exploiting it's natural form for economic advantage. Genetic redesign, plastic surgery, fad diet systems, assembly line excercize factories, all inspired by massive advertising shape the choices we make regarding our health and well being. They are justified by supply and demand. But shouldn't we ask ourselves when enough is enough? The Christian understanding for the body and physical activity is extremist to some degree and now almost obsolete, but the modern view holds no reverence for it at all, nor does it consider any level of manipulation to be taboo. This is the age we live in now. The question them becomes, will we come to a point as a society where we become fed up with the lack of values regarding the human form, science and economics and revert back to a more holistic and spiritual view where the body will once again be held as sacred, or will we continue on the path in which we are heading, where it is nothing more than what computer scientist Marvin Minsky calls a "meat machine"?