Love thy Body: the two-story answers to one story questions

At the risk of being called a hater, I have to say that I like Nancy R. Pearcey’s book Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Baker Books, 2018). Not only do I like the book, but I have to agree with her position on the issues that she addresses. But in all fairness, I also have to admit that this is one of the scariest books I have read in quite some time.  Not scary in the sense of monsters, or Stephen King novels, but scary in the sense of how did we get to the point where we, as a society, now find ourselves. Not scary in the sense that the author is trying to force us to accept a different standard, but the fact that many people are already making lifechanging decisions based on a new standard which is based more on feelings than on body reality.

               

                  This is also a book which, depending on your worldview, you will either agree with, or absolutely hate. And worldview as it is changing seems to be one of the main points of this book. In a very broad sense, worldview determines how you perceive and respond to the world around you.  My understanding has always been that a worldview helps one answer the big questions of life, but in our post-modern, post-Christian world, it almost seems like we are expected and encouraged to answer the questions and then adopt a worldview that supports those answers.

                Pearcey tackles questions that often tend to be major issues for Christians. What person who goes to church on a regular basis (not that church attendance is the defining factor of Christianity,) doesn’t have an opinion on things like abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and all the other things that our religion tells us are wrong? Sometimes church people’s (or church humans, if we cave to the pressure to accept personhood over humanity) opinions on these topics cause an outrage from those with a more liberal point of view, and some church people have such liberal opinions that other church people have trouble accepting them. 

                Change is often a good thing, but change solely for the sake of change, isn’t always in the best interest of humanity, but as things are changing in our world, as worldviews evolve (or devolve, depending on your perspective) humanity doesn’t seem to matter. For many people the concept of personhood seems to take precedence. All people are human, but not all humans are people. Thus, a case can be made for abortion, since a fetus hasn’t yet attained personhood.   

                Or how are decisions made concerning gender? In the case of transgenderism, the standard used to be to mold the mind to fit the birth body, but now it seems that because someone is not just a human, but more importantly a person, it’s now acceptable, admirable, and expected to change the body to fit the mind.

                Pearcy makes a strong case for a biblical worldview, a worldview which happens to concur with many points of a worldview based on the holy books of other major religions, but which seems to be superseded by an ever increasing tendency to put the individual above society.

                I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review. I was not required to write a positive review.

                4/5