The Living Temple: A Practical Theology of the Body and the Foods of the Earth

Its 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 medicines to Christianity and the foods we eat - Common myths about American nutrition and why they just arent 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 the Center. Braaten has authored and edited over fifty theological books including Principles of Lutheran Theology (Fortress 1983) The Future of God: The Revolutionary Dynamics of Hope (Harper & Row 1969) Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism (Fortress 1998) Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian (Eerdmans 2010) and Who Is Jesus? Disputed Questions and Answers (Eerdmans 2011) as well as hundreds of articles and editorials in various academic journals. Braaten was born on January 3 1929 in St. Paul Minnesota. He grew up on the island of Madagascar where his parents served as missionaries of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America. He graduated from Augustana Academy a Lutheran high school in Canton South Dakota. He received degrees from St. Olaf College (BA) Luther Seminary (MDiv) and Harvard University Divinity School (ThD). In 1951 he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) in 1957 a doctoral student at the University of Heidelberg where he wrote his dissertation and in 1967 a Guggenheim Fellow at Oxford University. In 1974 he spent a sabbatical making a worldwide lecture tour of various colleges and seminaries in Japan China India Kenya Tanzania Madagascar Peru Chile Argentina Brazil and Mexico. This tour resulted in a book on the universal mission of the church entitled The Flaming Center (Fortress 1977).