There is a long history in the west of denigrating the body and privileging the mind. Perhaps most famous in this stream of thought (see what I did there?) is René Descartes infamous assertion that existence depends on a functioning mind: “I think therefore I am.”
Many have drawn links between the privileging of mind over body and sexism, colonialism, racism, and the environmental crisis. Christianity in its western European iteration has historically been more concerned with saving souls than with saving bodies.
It’s good to see a movement underway to reclaim and honour our bodies. Both science and spirituality are showing us how inhabiting our bodies more fully leads us closer to Truth and Beauty than scorning and abusing them. The body is the gateway to soul, not a barrier to it.
The expression is body and soul, not body or soul.
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