Justin Whittle Earley, The Body Teaches the Soul (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2025) 260 pp.
Books about the human body (health in particular) are flying off the shelves these days. Many of these books have good things to offer in the way of overall fitness and include helpful principles that concern nutrition, exercise, longevity, and sleep.
Justin Whittle Earley’s book, The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life. Here, as the title suggests, we are confronted not only with the challenge to pursue a healthy life; we are called to a life of holiness. The combination of these themes makes Earley’s book stand out above the rest.
Christians have a nasty habit of pitting the secular against the sacred, thus buying into a sort of evangelical gnosticism, a theme that the author explores in some detail. The habits commended in this volume are:
- Breathing
- Thinking
- Eating and Drinking
- Sleeping
- Sickness and Pain
- Exercise
- Sex
- Technology
- Worship
- Death and Resurrection
Each chapter guides readers on a journey that should challenge them to a life of health and holiness. For my money, the chapter on worship is especially noteworthy. The author alerts readers to the importance of worship, reminding them that “our bodies are fine-tuned to worship.” Central to this chapter is a critical observation, namely – “Everything that is biological is also theological.” Highlighting this theme should be revolutionary for many, as they have been accustomed to emphasizing the spiritual over the physical, thus taking the gnostic bait once again. Chapter ten also emphasizes physical discipline and spiritual discipline, the sum total that equals holistic worship.
One critique of this volume, despite its many praiseworthy elements, is the author’s encouragement for readers to engage in Lectio Divina, the Latin term for “spiritual reading.” This novel approach to interpreting Scripture is highly subjective and is leading the unsuspecting down paths that are not biblical. This ancient practice that many contemporary Christians are utilizing is a dangerous departure from biblical hermeneutics and should be avoided. Or as David Helms implies, it leads us away from the right meaning and right application of a text instead of toward it.” See Tim Challies’ excellent article, A Danger of Lectio Divina for a more comprehensive critique.
Overall, though, The Body Teaches the Soul is a solid offering that I encourage readers to study and apply to their lives.
Veritas et Lux 