“Love Thy Body” Reading Group Tackles Difficult Subjects
Reported by Michael Nellis
Photography by www.nancypearcey.com
NEWBERG, ORE. – This past March, students from George Fox University (GFU)’s William Penn Honors Program (WPHP) met around the seminar table in Pennington House, but not for a typical class. Freshmen to seniors gathered to discuss “Love Thy Body,” the most recent book by evangelical scholar Nancy Pearcey, who was scheduled to speak at GFU on April 2.
“At the time I read [Pearcey’s book] I was becoming increasingly aware of how a lot of my students who came from evangelical backgrounds had a conception of Christianity as being very negative about the body,” said Abigail Favale, director of the WPHP.
“I thought that, in preparation for her lecture, it might be helpful to have discussions with students about what the role of the body is in Christianity, what Christian approaches to sexuality look like, with the book as a springboard,” Favale said.
There was enough interest to form two groups of around 18 students each, with the discussion modeled after a Socratic seminar. “I’m a person that loves ideas, first and foremost, so diversity of ideas is something that I really value,” said Meredith Teel, a junior in the group. “I went in wondering if it was going to be tense, since we were talking about such hot topics, but I was really impressed with the maturity that everyone had.”
“I really appreciated having this reading group because we could discuss the elephant in the room in a good environment, not making judgments or condemnations in any way but genuinely trying to figure out why these two opposing ideas are what they are,” Teel said. “I think as soon as we stop discussing, we stop humanizing each other, and we just create camps and talk behind each other’s backs. The basis for having a good community is having good conversation.”
Although the lecture is not taking place due to nationwide coronavirus concerns, Favale anticipates a similar kind of group perhaps forming in coming semesters. One possibility mentioned was discussing articles from the Atlantic Monthly. “I think there’s kind of an effort to create more conversation in the Honors Program around contemporary issues, and this group now is a prototype of what that could look like,” she said.
“My hope is that George Fox will become a place where we have vibrant and substantive conversations about the body and sexuality and issues of life and dignity,” Favale said. “I think the sort of ethos of the Honors Program is to engage with ideas that we find challenging or controversial, rather than wanting to just shut them down. We’re not about censoring books we disagree with, we wrestle with them and discuss our disagreements in an attitude of respect and charity.”