The Living Temple [Hardcover]

It's time that the body reassumed its rightful place of importance in Christian life, according to Carl and LaVonne Braaten in The Living Temple. In this sourcebook for a healthier way to live, the authors discuss the body, the foods we put into it, and how Christians are to regard it. Although often slighted in Christian tradition, the body was not regarded by Paul and the early Church as vile flesh to be transcended, but as a living metaphor of Christ and his people and as the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. The body is thus to be cared for and revered. Later thinkers, including Luther, upheld this view. But today it is increasingly difficult to fulfill this biblical ideal. Junk food and drink can ravage the temple. Among the many practical aspects of the Braatens' discussion are: - What vital nutrients are currently being processed out of our foods and how they can be replaced - Natural medicine's to Christianity and the foods we eat - Common myths about American nutrition and why they just aren't true - The principal vitamins and minerals and the function of each in proper nutrition Select bibliographies for further reading and continuing discussion follow each chapter. The Living Temple is a sensible Christian application of one of our most vital concerns. Carl Edward Braaten is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He served as a parish pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Minneapolis from 1958-1961. From 1961-1991 Braaten served as a professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. In 1992 he together with Robert W. Jenson founded the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology in Northfield, Minnesota. For fifteen years he served as the executive director of the Center, an ecumenical organization whose mission is to cultivate faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the churches, and also as the editor-in-chief of Pro Ecclesia, a journal of theology published by lÃ&