The Christian practice of honoring the body is born of the confidence that our bodies are made in the image of God's own goodness. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you," Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:19). As the place where the divine presence dwells, our bodies are worthy of care and blessing and ought never to be degraded or exploited. It is through our bodies that we participate in God's activity in the world, just as my friend united her creativity to God's own during the birth of her child. And it is through daily bodily acts — bathing, dressing, touching — that we might live more fully into the sacredness of our bodies and the bodies of others.
— Stephanie Paulsell, Practicing Our Faith by Dorothy C. Bass, editor