A review of “The Body Teaches the Soul” by Justin Earley

Justin Earley is perhaps an unexpected spiritual formation teacher. He’s a business lawyer and family man, but he’s made spiritual formation his mission. Earley’s learned the hard way, and he wants to teach us from his mistakes and, even more, from the Bible. 

Earley’s writing is accessible, clarifying, and humble. I reviewed his Habits of a Household—another kindhearted and clear exposition of how we can use parenting habits to form a spiritually healthy household. When I have kids, I know I’ll revisit it. 

In The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life, Earley opens with his personal story. It involves his crash and burn, checking himself into the hospital after 48 hours of no sleep, and facing anxiety attack after anxiety attack from chronic stress. 

He’d left his body by the wayside, and it affected his whole life. 

Wait, that’s not what he learned in church. Don’t you just need to grit your teeth, go to Sunday School, and believe? Why care about the body? 

A grace-filled template for biblical, bodily flourishing

The Body Teaches the Soul is an important call to Christians: your body is not just a shell for your soul—we are “spiritual bodies.” The body and soul are intricately connected. The soul shapes and directs the body, of course, but the reverse is true as well. 

In the US, it’s sadly common for Christians to adhere to the status quo of poor diet, little exercise, and constant stress. Neglecting your body will take a toll on your soul, because your body’s neglect is your soul’s neglect. 

Historically, Earley is tackling a two-thousand-year-old heresy called Gnosticism. Gnosticism teaches that for the immaterial soul to flourish, the material body must be neglected. According to Gnosticism, the human body and this world are thoroughly evil. It’s something Christians can easily drift into without realizing it. 

However, The Body Teaches the Soul is not a theological work. Instead, Earley provides a practical, grounded guide for Christians wanting to take their embodied faith seriously. This means valuing bodily practices and rhythms without idolizing them. 

Earley follows the structure of warning about what happens when we ignore an aspect of our embodied lives, like food, and what happens when we idolize it. Instead of ignoring or idolizing, Early shows us the biblical way, understanding our bodies as part of our identity as image bearers. 

He proposes right views and healthy practices for bodily relationships like sex, food, exercise, sleep, and even breathing. Earley’s work will be indispensable for many. 

His audience will be especially targeted to those who were like him: businessmen (or pastors!) in America who think sleep is optional, exercise is a waste of time, and stress is an immutable fact of life. In other words, those who systematically disobey God’s command to rest, indulge in addictions, and ignore their bodies do so to their own spiritual detriment. And these realities are, tragically, the status quo for many. 

Earley avoids the trap of legalism through consistent gentleness, offering readers anecdotes of his own personal struggles and relatable familial mishaps, all the while preaching the gospel of grace. Moreover, his wife, Lauren, chimes in at key moments to address women specifically, which is a refreshing touch. 

Is reclaiming the body countercultural? 

I mentioned before that The Body Teaches the Soul is primarily a practical guide rather than a theological exploration. Earley is right that the American church largely ignores bodily discipline to our detriment. However, the church is lagging behind the wider culture in this regard.

To be totally frank, it’s not very countercultural to talk about things like good breathing techniques. For example, Earley occasionally cites health and science communicator Dr. Andrew Huberman. Dr. Huberman hosts one of the most popular podcasts of all time—so quoting him is hardly countercultural. 

The West is already (rightly) rebounding from the culture’s incessant obsession with money, work, and cerebrality toward valuing our body and leisure. (Aimee Joseph points this out in her review as well.) 

Nevertheless, Christians need to integrate this ancient, Christian, and Jewish view of the world that honors the body. Valuing and taking care of our bodies isn’t a fad; it’s ancient. 

A way for improvement: deeper theology 

While I appreciate the difficulty of Earley’s task—to show an audience of mostly American Christians how to take care of their bodies in a spiritually integrated way—I wish he had spent more time on the theology. Most of the footnotes on extra sources, for example, are science-related rather than theological. 

I agree with Earley’s message, but I’m not sure if he did the necessary theological legwork to fully convey the meaning behind the language he uses about embodied, spiritual living. Ultimately, this is an issue of page count and not his fault. 

He could tighten up his language as well, although I think his direction and intentions are always good. 

While this critique may sound like nitpicking, there are times when important aspects of his message are left less clear as a result. For example, in context, the following passage makes sense, but it’s an example of where he could tighten up his wording: “The gospel is not just a message, it is a template for our lives.” 

The word “gospel” in Greek literally means “good news” or “good message.” Jesus’ teaching, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, does provide a template for living—but the gospel literally means a public message or even royal decree.

Read “The Body Teaches the Soul!” 

These minor pushbacks should in no way discourage you from reading the book. These can help you adjust expectations; I fully recommend The Body Teaches the Soul! I think it’s essential reading for Christians who give little to no thought to their bodies. 

Staying up late on your phone for the sixth night in a row and eating McDonald’s for every dinner will affect your relationship with God and others. Just as your soul instructs your body, so your body will instruct your soul. Just as Earley says, “Your body is not an obstacle to your spiritual life, it’s an entry point,” so too will temptation come through the entry point of your embodied lifestyle. 

What is your body teaching your soul? 

Christians, especially Americans, have neglected our bodies for far too long. Jesus’s teachings regularly and consistently involve the body. Yet we make our faith merely about doctrine, right teaching, and cerebral assent. 

God designed our beautiful, intricately made, and purposeful bodies. Let’s make sure we’re fulfilling that purpose, for spiritual disciplines are ultimately bodily disciplines as well. 

Your body doesn’t determine your actions. It doesn’t control your spiritual faith. But your body does teach your soul. 

If it didn’t, why sing? Why raise hands in worship? Why bow your head? Why fast? 

Brothers and sisters, what is your body teaching your soul? 

Notable Quotes

“We are not machines. We grow weary and tired, and that is a feature, not a flaw.” (98)

“There are two major ways we separate body and spirit. We either ignore our bodies, treating only the spiritual as important, or we idolize them, acting as if the physical is all that matters. Neither is biblical.” (23) 

“… breathing deeply is now one of the ways I try to follow Jesus’ command, ‘Do not be anxious about your life.” (29) 

“Where sickness warns us to avoid each other, the ethic of Jesus makes us walk back and care for each other. We cannot do otherwise, for we follow Jesus, who insists on walking into the contagion.” (129)

“In between the now and the not yet, anyone who loves the world of bodies that God made must also learn to lament it. Because so much is right about what God made, and so much is wrong with how it now stands.” (132) 

“While the systematic lawyer in me wants to find neat categories for how the body and spirit interlock to form a soul, the Bible cannot be reduced to a simple body + spirit = soul math equation. But it does give us some stars to gaze up at. Here are three: body, spirit, and soul. As we will see, they are all connected by breath.” (20) 

“… spiritual growth takes time. Reciting ‘do not be anxious’ does not instantly rewire the brain, but seeking the kingdom alongside Jesus through embodied action slowly can. This is why Jesus’ parables are garden-centric—the work of sanctification is a slow, cultivated, and embodied partnership between us and the God of Grace…” (47) 

“… slowly, our healthy need for daily bread turns to greed, and our inbuilt capacity for joy turns to shame. We who were made to worship through dependence and delight now find ourselves chained to indulgence and guilt.” (70)

“… one of the key research findings about dopamine in the past decade is that in terms of dopamine triggers, sugar is up there with sex, cocaine, and cigarettes… Meaning that if we do not see our food habits as potentially as addictive and dangerous as drug habits, we do not understand our brains (or our souls).” (72)