Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Sacrality of the Body

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Sacred in Exile

Abstract

Removed from a sacred matrix the body is viewed, often largely unconsciously, as a machine. This has vitally important implications for how we understand life and death and how we relate to our own bodies, the bodies of others, animal life and the body of the world. Current obsessions with diet and particular regimens can be viewed as attempts to re-enchant the human body. The chapter includes a discussion of the role played by religious traditions in health and healing both in the past and present.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The conception of a soul is vitally important philosophically, and why discussions within religions like Christianity about whether or not animals have souls are so important for their status in the Christian worldview.

  2. 2.

    And this is only affirmed if the body achieves the current standards of sexual attractiveness—slimness and youthfulness.

  3. 3.

    From a 1990 public address by Pope John Paul II.

References

  • Abraham, Aneena Anna, and V. Jithesh. 2012. The Kerala Experience in Palliative Care: An Ethical Exploration from the Public Health Perspective. Asian Bioethics Review 4 (1): 14–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ancowitz, Nancy. 2014. Giant Step Backward for Introverts. Psychology Today, August 6. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/self-promotion-introverts/201008/giant-step-backward-introverts. Accessed 21 Oct 2014.

  • Boesveld, Sarah. 2015. The New Religion: How the Emphasis on Clean Eating has Created a Moral Hierarchy of Food. The National Post, May 30. http://nationalpost.com/life/food/the-new-religion-how-the-emphasis-on-clean-eating-has-created-a-moral-hierarchy-for-food. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Brown, Peter. 1988. The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brytek-Matera, Anna, Radoslaw Rogoza, Carla Gramaglia, and Patrizia Zeppegno. 2015. Predictors of Orthorexic Behaviours in Patients with Eating Disorders: A Preliminary Study. BMC Psychiatry 15 (252): 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, Joy. 2007. Reweaving a Tapestry of Care: Religion, Nursing and the Meaning of Hospice. Nursing History Review 15: 113–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Michael, Patricia Rodney, Harold Coward, Pinit Ratanakul, and Khannika Suwannokote. 1999. Pediatric Care: Judgements about Best Interests at the Onset of Life. In A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Health Care Ethics, ed. Harold Coward and Pinit Ratanakul, 160–175. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain, Susan. 2012. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. New York: Broadway Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, David. 1998. Originating a Movement: Cicely Saunders and the Development of St. Christopher’s Hospice, 1957–1967. Mortality 3 (1): 43–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coakley, Sarah. 1997. Preface. In Religion and the Body, ed. Sarah Coakley, 1–14. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dia, Nisha Lilia. 2014. Is Meditation the New Anti-depressant? Mindfulness Practice May Be More Effective than Drugs for Anxiety, Depression. The National Post, January 13. http://nationalpost.com/health/is-meditation-the-new-anti-depressant-mindfulness-practice-may-be-more-effective-than-drugs-for-anxiety-depression. Accessed 20 Oct 2014.

  • Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concept of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dumit, Joseph. 2012. Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ferngren, Gary B. 2014. Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fields, Gregory P. 2001. Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra. New Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Floriano, Carol Milardo. 1999. The Spiritual Side of Pain: Hospice Caregivers Help a Suffering Patient Make Peace with His Religions. American Journal of Nursing 99 (5).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garces-Foley, Kathleen. 2003. Buddhism, Hospice, and the American Way of Dying. Review of Religious Research 44 (4): 341–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrigan, Paul. 2014. Extreme Detox: How Buddhist Monks Led Me to Humility and Freedom from Alcohol Addiction. Shambhala Sun, August 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gone, Joseph P. 2011. The Red Road to Wellness: Cultural Reclamation in a Native First Nations Community Treatment Center. American Journal of Community Medicine 47 (1–2): 187–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, Megan. 2012. Dis/enchantment: Locating Modernity between Secularism and the Sacred. Women Studies Quarterly 40 (3–4): 326–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goyal, Madhav, Sonal Singh, Erica M.S. Sibinga, Neda F. Gould, Anastasia Rowland-Seymour, Ritu Sharma, Zackary Berger, et al. 2014. Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine 174 (3): 357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyimesi, Julia. 2009. The Problem of Demarcation: Psychoanalysis and the Occult. American Imago 66 (4): 459–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, Robert A. 1995. Sickness and Healing: An Anthropological Perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamblin, James. 2015. Purity through Food: How Religious Ideas Sell Diets. The Atlantic, May 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanegraaf, Wouter J. 1998. New Age Religion and Western Culture. Albany: State University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heggenhougen, H.K. 1984. Traditional Medicine and the Treatment of Drug Addicts: Three Examples from Southeast Asia. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16 (1): 3–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollenberg, Daniel Benjamin. 2006. Integrative Health Care: A Critical Analysis of the Integration of Complimentary/Alternative Medicine and Biomedicine in Clinical. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoverd, William James. 2005. Working out My Salvation: The Contemporary Gym and the Promise of Self Transformation, vol. 7. Oxford: Meyer and Meyer Sport.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoverd, William James, and Chris G. Sibley. 2007. Immoral Bodies: The Implicit Association between Moral Discourse and the Body. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46 (3): 391–403.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsui, Edwin. 1999. Chinese Health Care Ethics. In A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Health Care Ethics, ed. Harold Coward and Pinit Ritanakul, 128–138. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husain, Syed Arshad. 1998. Religion and Mental Health from the Muslim Perspective. In Handbook of Religion and Mental Health, ed. Harold G. Koenig, 279–291. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isgandova, Nazila. 2005. Islamic Spiritual Care in a Healthcare Setting. In Spirituality and Health: Multidisciplinary Explorations, ed. Augustine Meier, Thomas St. James O’Connor, and Peter Van Katwyk, 85–104. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, B.K.S. 2005. Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace and Ultimate Freedom. Chatham: Rodale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, Ian. 2016. Mindfulness Therapy Works as Well as Anti-depressant Drugs, Major New Study Shows. Independent, April 27. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mindfulness-therapy-depression-anti-depressants-mental-health-research-meditation-a7003546.html. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Kelly, Edward, and Michael Grosso. 2007. Mystical Experience. In Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century, ed. F. Edward and Emily Williams Kelly et al. Lanham: Rowan and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinsley, David. 1996. Health, Healing and Religion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klassen, Pamela. 2011. Spirits of Protestantism: Medicine, Health, and Liberal Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Klostermaier, Klaus K. 2007. A Survey of Hinduism, 3rd ed. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, Jeff. 2001. God, Faith and Health: Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levonovitz, Alan. 2015. The Gluten Lie and Other Myths about What You Eat. New York: Regan Arts.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFague, Sallie. 1993. The Body of God: An Ecological Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, Meredith B. 1991. Ritual Healing in Suburban America. New Brunswick: Rutger’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKeon, Laura. 2014. Save Me from My Workout. Toronto Life, June 23. http://torontolife.com/city/save-me-from-my-workout/. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Pargament, Kenneth I. 2007. Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy. New York: The Guildford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratanakul, Pinit. 1999. Buddhism, Health, Disease and Thai Culture. In A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Health Care Ethics, ed. Harold Coward and Pinit Ratankul, 17–33. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratanakul, Pinit. 2009. Compassion, Healthcare and Buddhist Monks. Dharma World Magazine, April-June. http://www.rk-world.org/dharmaworld/dw_2009ajhealthcaremonks.aspx.

  • Seneviratne, Pradeep. 2012. Buddhist Monk Provides Unconventional Cure for Sri Lankan Addicts. Khabar, May 20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Virginia. 2007. Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szalavitz, Maia. 2012. Q&A: Jon Kabat-Zinn Talks about Bringing Mindfulness Meditation to Medicine. Time, January 11. http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/11/mind-reading-jon-kabat-zinn-talks-about-bringing-mindfulness-meditation-to-medicine/. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Tabachnick, David Edward. 2013. The Great Reversal: How We Let Technology Take Control of the Planet. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari, Maya. 2002. The Path of Practice. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volk, Steven. 2013. Rewiring the Brain to Treat OCD. Discover, November 20. http://discovermagazine.com/2013/nov/14-defense-free-will. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Winkelman, Michael. 2005. Spirituality and the Healing of Addictions: A Shamanic Drumming Approach. In Religion and Healing in America, ed. Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered, 455–470. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, Xiolan. 2006. Reflections of the Moon on Water: Healing Women’s Bodies and Minds through Traditional Chinese Wisdom. Toronto: Vintage Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. Inner Beauty: Looking, Feeling and Being Your Best through Traditional Chinese Healing. Toronto: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zysk, Kenneth G. 2010. Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery. New Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada

    Gillian McCann

  2. Vidya Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Gitte Bechsgaard

Authors
  1. Gillian McCann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gitte Bechsgaard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gillian McCann .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

McCann, G., Bechsgaard, G. (2017). The Sacrality of the Body. In: The Sacred in Exile. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66499-6_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation