Born Again Bodies
Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity
1st Edition
Published on 4. October 2004
Book
Hardback
337 pages
978-0-520-21753-9 (ISBN)
Description
'Fat People Don't Go to Heaven!' screamed a headline in the tabloid "Globe" in November 2000. The story recounted the success of the Weigh Down Workshop, the nation's largest Christian diet corporation and the subject of extensive press coverage from "Larry King Live" to the "New Yorker". In the United States today, hundreds of thousands of people are making diet a religious duty by enrolling in Christian diet programs and reading Christian diet literature like "What Would Jesus Eat?" and "Fit for God". Written with style and wit, far ranging in its implications, and rich with the stories of real people, "Born Again Bodies" launches a provocative yet sensitive investigation into Christian fitness and diet culture. Looking closely at both the religious roots of this movement and its present-day incarnations, R. Marie Griffith vividly analyzes Christianity's intricate role in America's obsession with the body, diet, and fitness.
As she traces the underpinning of modern-day beauty and slimness ideals - as well as the bigotry against people who are overweight - Griffith links seemingly disparate groups in American history including seventeenth-century New England Puritans, Progressive Era New Thought adherents, and late-twentieth-century evangelical diet preachers.
As she traces the underpinning of modern-day beauty and slimness ideals - as well as the bigotry against people who are overweight - Griffith links seemingly disparate groups in American history including seventeenth-century New England Puritans, Progressive Era New Thought adherents, and late-twentieth-century evangelical diet preachers.
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
20 b-w photographs
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-21753-9 (9780520217539)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2004
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€34.49
Available for download
Person
R. Marie Griffith is Associate Professor of Religion at Princeton University and author of God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (California, 1997).
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Perilous Body Gospels
A Note on Reading the Images
1. Gluttons for Regimen: Anglo-Protestant Culture and the Reorientation of Appetite
The Diet of Angels: Fasting in Early Modern Anglo-American Protestantism
Gospels of Physick: Medicine, Methodism, and Mortification
Rarefied Flesh: Sexual Regulation, Bodily Pleasure, and Perfection
Phrenology and Somatic Authenticity
2. Sculptors of Our Own Exterior: New Thought Physiques
"Nothing but a Dense Shadow": The Body as Delusion?
Corresponding Bodies
Female Sexual Pleasure and Mystical Communion:
Reproducing a Civilized Race
Regimens Shaping Bodies to Come
3. Minding the Body: Divergent Paths of New Thought Perfectionism
Living on Air: Gospels of Fasting, Conquest, and Purgation
William Sheldon's Metaphysical Somatotypes
God in a Body: Gastronomy and Black Power
4. Pray the Weight Away: Shaping Devotional Fitness Culture
Shedd-ing Pounds: Scripture and Devotional Practice in Service to Weight Loss
The Burgeoning Christian Diet Culture
From Empathy to Authority: Shifting Models of Expertise
Religious Devotion to Thinness Outside Mainstream Protestantism
5. "Don't Eat That": Denial, Indulgence, and Exclusion in Christian Diet Culture
Poisoned Bodies, Blemished Souls: Food as Taint and Transgression
Loved on a Smaller Scale: Women,Weight, and the Divine
Lover Above
The Power of Perfection: Purified Bodies and Racialized Worlds
Epilogue: Bodies in Crisis?
Notes
Primary Source Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Perilous Body Gospels
A Note on Reading the Images
1. Gluttons for Regimen: Anglo-Protestant Culture and the Reorientation of Appetite
The Diet of Angels: Fasting in Early Modern Anglo-American Protestantism
Gospels of Physick: Medicine, Methodism, and Mortification
Rarefied Flesh: Sexual Regulation, Bodily Pleasure, and Perfection
Phrenology and Somatic Authenticity
2. Sculptors of Our Own Exterior: New Thought Physiques
"Nothing but a Dense Shadow": The Body as Delusion?
Corresponding Bodies
Female Sexual Pleasure and Mystical Communion:
Reproducing a Civilized Race
Regimens Shaping Bodies to Come
3. Minding the Body: Divergent Paths of New Thought Perfectionism
Living on Air: Gospels of Fasting, Conquest, and Purgation
William Sheldon's Metaphysical Somatotypes
God in a Body: Gastronomy and Black Power
4. Pray the Weight Away: Shaping Devotional Fitness Culture
Shedd-ing Pounds: Scripture and Devotional Practice in Service to Weight Loss
The Burgeoning Christian Diet Culture
From Empathy to Authority: Shifting Models of Expertise
Religious Devotion to Thinness Outside Mainstream Protestantism
5. "Don't Eat That": Denial, Indulgence, and Exclusion in Christian Diet Culture
Poisoned Bodies, Blemished Souls: Food as Taint and Transgression
Loved on a Smaller Scale: Women,Weight, and the Divine
Lover Above
The Power of Perfection: Purified Bodies and Racialized Worlds
Epilogue: Bodies in Crisis?
Notes
Primary Source Bibliography
Index