I am due to give birth to our first child in just 2 weeks. My husband and I eagerly anticipate meeting our baby boy, and that anticipation has grown since the day we discovered we were pregnant. We’ve cherished our child from day one, and we’re excited for a new “Day One” to come very soon!

Of course, my language about our unborn son is congruent with a Christian worldview. We called him our child from the very beginning, treating him as a person, a soul, whose body is being knit together by God as we speak. We tell people we are parents, not “parents-to-be.” We celebrated each other on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. However, this type of treatment and thinking of our baby is radically different than the approach of the dominant secular worldview. 

In her book, Love Thy Body, Nancy Pearcey tackles the “hard questions about life and sexuality” at their root, pitting the Biblical and secular worldviews against each other. She covers abortion, sexual orientation, euthenasia, and more. Pearcey demonstrates how secularism has one, unwholesome worldview at the root of each topic and how the Christian worldview holds up with integrity. 

Pearcey explains that a dichotomy of Fact/Value, Body/Soul, and so forth lies at the root of the secular worldview for abortion, euthenasia, etc. The dichotomy is not new to our era in history, but it is definitely prevalent. At a glance, the dichotomy separates our biological bodies (facts, science, materials) from our personhood (soul, desires, identity). However, Pearcey demonstrates with each topic that this split creates a very low view of our bodies and that the Christian worldview fits more wholistically with the human experience.

“By respecting the body, the biblical ethic overcomes the dichotomy separating body from person. It heals self-alienation and creates integrity and wholeness. The root of the word integrity means whole, integrated, unified–our mind and emotions in tune with our physical body. The biblical view leads to a wholistic integration of personality. It fits who we really are.” (pg. 30)

Love Thy Body has been an intriguing read for me, especially as I think about the child in my womb. I’d encourage anyone reading this to pick up the book, too, and learn how to tackle today’s ideologies at their root. Let Pearcey peel back the curtain and provide a behind-the-scenes analysis of today’s hot topics. And Christians, let us take up a renewed confidence in the Biblical worldview, seeking to engage differing worldviews with humility and assurance in the beautiful, wholesome way God created every person.