#40 | Why Christians Fight For The Body Not Against It

For £2.27 ($3) a month you get:Exclusive access to premium contentAccess to great value on all Jarvah Biltong Products (UK only)All funds go to the Orthodox Church in St Leonard's, Hastings to continue it's transformational workSunny Banana (Sunny Banana + Jarvah Biltong)Fighting against your body can feel like the normal version of spirituality. But what if that posture is backwards? I’m unpacking a line from the Orthodox theologian Father Alexander Schmemann that hit me hard: we’re meant to fight for the body, not against it and the same goes for food. That one shift changes how we think about desire, discipline, and what it means to become truly human. We move from theology to painfully current reality. I reflect on the hope of resurrection and a renewed body, then trace the story of food through the Christian lense: Adam’s passion and the fall, Christ crucified on a tree that bears fruit for eternal life, and the Mother of God as the bearer of that life-giving fruit. For Orthodox Christians, this isn’t abstract symbolism. Holy Communion is the real “food we need”, the Body and Blood of Christ given unselfishly, and we’re asked to respond. Then I bring it down to street level: caring for a healthy body with exercise and strengthening food, and caring for the soul with spiritual exercises like prayer, repentance, confession, prostrations, the sign of the cross, icons, and church. Finally, I speak honestly about war and conflict, including what’s happening in the Middle East, and the temptation to let destruction and division overwhelm us. We’re called to care for the world, but not to treat it as the ultimate prize. The deeper fight is for the world to come. If this gave you even one clear step towards faith, virtue, and steadiness, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review that tells me what you’re fighting for.Drop us a lineSupport the show