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Fit for What?

Exercise, the Body, and Fitness Culture in Christian Perspective

by Andrew Maurice Borror

Fit for What?
Paperback
$27.99
  • Length: 301 pages
  • Dimensions: 6 × 9 in
  • Published: May 18, 2027
  • Imprint: IVP Academic
  • ISBN: 9781514016978

In Fit for What?, Andrew Borror offers a cultural exegesis of modern fitness culture, seeking to answer the questions: What story does fitness culture tell about the body? What vision of the good life does it assume? And how might the person of Christ, who neither lived a sedentary life nor trained in a modern gym, reshape the way we think about exercise, health, and embodiment?

In a culture saturated with self-optimization, body image pressure, and performance-driven fitness ideals, many believers find themselves grappling with the pressures and ideals of contemporary fitness trends. Rather than treating the body as a machine to optimize or an image to manage, Fit for What? calls Christians to receive their creaturely, limited bodies as gifts from God, and to care for them in ways that honor him and serve their vocations in community.

Drawing on biblical and christological anthropology, Borror argues that fitness culture is not guilty of loving the body too much; it is guilty of not loving the body enough. By chasing an abstract ideal of physical perfection, it fails to appreciate the actual bodies of actual people.

What you'll find in Fit for What?:

  • A Christian ethic for physical fitness that honors God and the human body rather than exalting or idolizing the self
  • A vision of Christ's human body that helps us make discerning decisions about our own bodies, seeing both exercise and our limitations as a gift
  • Examination of the stories, values, and assumptions embedded in contemporary fitness trends, equipping readers to engage them discerningly
  • An ideal resource for college and seminary courses on ethics, health, and the body


This book revitalizes wonder at the gift of our own unique bodies without denying the difficulties of embodied life in a broken world. Fit for What? is essential reading for Christian athletes, fitness enthusiasts, students, or anyone wanting to think deeply about how their faith informs physical exercise.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I: Exercise in a Technological Age

1. Our (Mis)Embodied World
2. Fitness as Self-Optimization
3. Fitness as Image Management
4. Your Body Is not Your Own

Part II: Christ's Three-fold Body
5. Honoring Creaturely Limits
6. The Destiny of the Body
7. Strengthening Christ's Body
8. Health and Fitness in Membership
9. Fruitful Dominion
10. Receiving the Body as a Gift
11. Discipline and Discernment

Part III: Exercise in the Kingdom of God
12. Exercise for Spiritual Growth
13. The Hope of a Perfect Body
14. Beauty in Human Form
15. Christ's Image in All Bodies

Conclusion: Fitness as Fidelity
Bibliography

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