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# Every Body Matters: A Discussion with Gary Thomas
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/body-matters-discussion-gary-thomas/
- Published: 2012-01-05T12:13:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-20T20:54:23.000Z
- Description: Every Body Matters: A Discussion with Gary Thomas
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Lee Anderson, Formation

Gary Thomas is best well known [for his book on marriage](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310242827/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=mereorth-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0310242827&ref=mereorthodoxy.com), which is still one of the standard bearers on the subject (see our [review of it](http://www.mereorthodoxy.com/review-sacred-marriage/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com), [and Thomas's response](http://www.mereorthodoxy.com/meet-the-readers-gary-thomas-on-sacred-marriage/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com), [and more](http://www.mereorthodoxy.com/action-education-and-being-a-response-to-gary-thomas/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)!).

He's got a new book [out that goes after gluttony and sloth](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310290813/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=mereorth-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0310290813&ref=mereorthodoxy.com), and I sat down with [him for Christianity Today to discuss it](http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/decemberweb-only/resolvingtolose.html?ref=mereorthodoxy.com).

As someone with my own opinions on such matters, I was naturally intrigued by Thomas's book. And happily, I can highly commend it to you as an excellent and sensitive exploration of gluttony and fitness's relationship to the Christian faith.

As R. Marie Griffith argues [in her indispensable Born Again Bodies](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520242408/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=mereorth-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0520242408&ref=mereorthodoxy.com), evangelicals have teetered on the brink (and often gone over) of reinforcing white, western body-types as normative in their endorsements of dieting and fitness. Additionally, they have often lazily associated being fat with being sinful, a correlation that is less obvious and more troubling upon inspection than it might seem.

Happily, Thomas avoids both these errors, repeatedly underlining that the goal is bodily *health* and *vitality* rather than shape. That's an important distinction, yet one lost on many of us.

Of course, I have my quibbles as well. For instance, Thomas instrumentalizes the body in a way that I think is problematic and doubles down on a sort of spiritualization that I find troubling. But on the whole, I count the book as a good step in the right direction for evangelicals.

[From the interview: ](http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/decemberweb-only/resolvingtolose.html?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)

> **How should Christians who want to avoid replicating cultural errors about the body speak about health and fitness?**  
>  
> The cheap line is that we should look at our bodies as instruments, not ornaments. The idea comes from 2 Timothy 2:20-21, which is a picture of our progressive sanctification. The question should be *How we are making ourselves available to God?* If I live to 70 or 80, am I keeping up a body that will have the energy and ability to still minister in those years?  
>  
> My longevity is set by God, but I can affect both my frailty and my availability. I could eat myself into a place or neglect myself into a place where I'm become so absorbed by doctor visits and a lack of vitality that I'm not as effective as God would call me to be.  
>  
> That's not to say there aren't immediate benefits right now. I notice an *enormous* difference if my body is in shape in terms of my availability to people than if I'm carrying a few extra pounds and haven't been working out.

[Read more here](http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/decemberweb-only/resolvingtolose.html?ref=mereorthodoxy.com).