The Bible as a Training Guide: Martin Radermacher interviewed on "Devotional Fitness" by Radio Bayern 2

Concepts of the body are also influenced by religious ideas. Especially in the age of digitization and pervasive visualisation, body images are under enormous pressure. While on the one side ideals of perfect bodies grow widely, people are less and less satfiesfied with their own bodies. 'Body positivity' is only one concepts, heralded by men and women alike, who aim to cherish themselves including their physical appearances as they are. This idea is supported by Christian principles that stress the love of the own body, e.g. to be found in the lettres of apostle Paul, the mysticism of Theresa of Avila or the writings of Hildegard of Bingen. 

CERES-Researcher Dr. Martin Radermacher was interviewed for the radio show "Mein Körper, mein Tempel" ('My Body, My Temple') by journalists Antje Dechert and Friederike Weede. He sketsches out how much 'Devotional Fitness" is based on ideas that derive from Evangelicalism. The 'Daniel Plan', for example, offers fitness trainings that also grow spirtiuality and reinvokes motifs of the biblical history of prophet Daniel. This plan sees the Bible as a sort of a fitness guide in combining Christian ideas with recent body images. 

Learn more on this topic in the radio show here (German only).