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Why the call to Love Thy Body? To counter a pervasive hostility toward the body and biology that drives today's headline stories: Transgenderism: Activists detach gender from biology. Kids down to kindergarten are being taught their bodies are irrelevant. Is this affirming--or does it demean the body? Homosexuality: Advocates disconnect sexuality from biological identity. Is this liberating--or does it denigrate biology? Abortion: Supporters deny the fetus is a person, though it is biologically human. Does this mean equality for women--or does it threaten the intrinsic value of all humans? Euthanasia: Those who lack certain cognitive abilities are said to be no longer persons. Is this compassionate--or does it ultimately put everyone at risk? In Love Thy Body, bestselling author Nancy Pearcey goes beyond politically correct slogans with a riveting exposé of the dehumanizing worldview that shapes current watershed moral issues. Pearcey then turns the tables on media boilerplate that misportrays Christianity as harsh or hateful. A former agnostic, she makes a surprising and persuasive case that Christianity is holistic, sustaining the dignity of the body and biology. Throughout she entrances readers with compassionate stories of people wrestling with hard questions in their own lives--their pain, their struggles, their triumph… (more)
User reviews
This is an important book, so important in fact, that the proponents of the various shades of thought confronted here, they need to absorb and respond to her incisive commentary.
In the past few years I have come upon several authors with trenchant critiques of modern cultures in a variety of ways. Pearcey, Keller, Abdu Murray and Champagne Butterfield to name just a handful. Pearcey stands right at the top of this list. May her tribe increase.
One niggle, she cites Eagleton, implying that he was a Marxist and is now Catholic, whilst I suspect the opposite is true; but that does not make the citation wrong.
Another irritation is her talking about Intelligent
And in all the concern for the unborn fetus by these Americans I wonder whether they ever give as much concern for the living people who are enemies and criminals. They seem happy to see them killed with their guns and capital punishment. And these policies are associated with the right wing, who previously showed no concern for the rights of the poor and oppressed. I remember that when abortion was legalised in this country the main argument was the prevention of the 20 annual deaths resulting from criminal abortion. Some consistency of concern for the living should be emphasised.
Nevertheless her basic argument seems true, that the bodies we are given come with a natural bundle of implications about the way we and our societies should operate, and she interacts very helpfully with the philosophers who were behind the development of modern thought.