The Bible’s Unique View of Ourselves

Your understanding of your own body may owe more to Eastern religiosity than you realize. But Lainey Greer’s new book, Embodied Holiness, shows that the Bible teaches something different. True to its title, the work challenges Christians to strive for what Greer calls embodied holiness, a way of sanctification that factors in what we do with our bodies as well as our hearts and minds. Greer’s argument is as straightforward as it is needed in evangelical circles today: “Christians must recognize the body’s value and associate it with the biblical call to bodily care. This is the way of embodied holiness” (9). What’s most striking about the book to me, though, is the way it foregrounds just how unique the Bible’s teaching on the body really is when examined alongside some of the world’s other religious traditions.

Biblical Somatology Isn’t Monistic

Based on a first-century Greek word for “body,” somatology can refer to the study of the human body generally or to a given conceptualization of what the body and the person even are. Greer explains in her book that some somatologies are monistic. They see human persons as consisting of just one thing. For example, materialists represent a particular branch of monism since they say people are made up of only one element, namely, their material bodies. The Bible, on the other hand, has a lot to say about the immaterial side of us. Our souls, spirits, hearts, and minds—or some combination thereof—are surely a part of who we are. Greer leaves no room for doubt: Materialistic monism runs contrary to biblical somatology.

Some major schools of thought within Hinduism are also monistic. Beyond maintaining that each individual person consists of just one thing, many Hindu monists insist that the universe itself is made up of a vast cosmic oneness. A singular, immaterial essence, if you will. The Sanskrit word for this type of monism is advaita, literally meaning “nondualism.” In all the cosmos, there are no two things. What this means is that only our immaterial souls are real and are part of the universe’s vast oneness. Our bodies, quite literally, are immaterial. The Bible’s view of who we are as persons runs counter to this type of monism, too. Our bodies are real. They’re a part of who we are. And this leads to another way Embodied Holiness shows the uniqueness of the Bible’s teaching on the body and its place in our personhood.

Biblical Somatology Isn’t Axiologically Dualistic

Now that was a mouthful. Luckily, Greer explains better than I ever could that axiological dualism “believes in a two-part construction but elevates soul over body and spiritual matters over physical ones” (81). According to the axiological dualist, we as persons do have a body as well as a soul-spirit-heart-mind thingy, but the latter is what matters (precisely because it doesn’t contain matter). And here is where Greer makes an astute connection I didn’t see coming. She points out that “ascetic practices naturally flow from an axiological dualism, maligning material realities to focus on immaterial ones” (94). Asceticism—practicing strict self-denial when it comes to physical comforts and even bodily needs—is a prominent feature in many Eastern religious traditions, especially Jainism. Relaying the austerity of one of her community’s greatest living saints, a Jain woman in India once told me, “Oh he’s very holy; he barely eats anything.” To her, the formula was simple. Greater asceticism equals greater sanctification.

In Embodied Holiness, Greer explains that nothing could be further from the truth. Ascetic tendencies reveal a deep-seated misunderstanding of human embodiment. Our bodies, along with their needs, tastes, and preferences, aren’t obstacles to be overcome as we pursue holiness as God’s creatures. Rather, our embodiment—our natural, sweaty, hungry embodiment—is the very state in which God has ordained for us to pursue holiness for His glory. Unlike axiological dualism and the asceticism that flows out of it, the Bible shows us that our bodies are good, that their needs are legitimate, and that caring for them well is a key part of our journey toward holiness. Held up to the way other religions devalue the body and call for its deprivation, biblical somatology is beautiful and unique.

We’re Psychosomatic Beings

The Bible’s unique view of our selves is that we’re actually what Greer calls psychosomatic beings. The term is built from the Greek words, psychē meaning soul and sōma meaning body. We’re soul-bodies. We’re not only identifiable with our tangible flesh, as the materialistic monist would have us believe. Our material bodies aren’t unreal, as Hindu nondualists are committed to holding. And our physicality isn’t something we must deprive if we want to become more holy, as Jains and others all over the world sadly assume day after day. Rather, our identities as humans are characterized by what Greer refers to as a holistic nondualism, a dynamic in which our souls and our bodies are distinct yet intimately intertwined. Throughout Embodied Holiness, Greer makes clear that the Bible says we are made up of both bodies and souls, and that neither is less important than the other. Taking care of our physical selves matters as we endeavor to become more holy for the glory of God. In other words, what the Bible calls for—uniquely so—is embodied holiness.

Lainey Greer. Embodied Holiness: The Biblical Call to Bodily Care. B&H Academic, October 15, 2025.