From Obesity to Ironman, My Journey into the True Meaning of Flesh, Spirit, and Deeper Faith This Is My Body (Hardback) - Common

by Ragan Sutterfield

“The cacophony of voices about our bodies is so loud, it’s hard to hear the voices that matter. Some of us decide to forget it all and give in to one addiction or another. I’ve done that. Some of us decide to perfect our bodies and obsess over every muscle or wrinkle. I’ve done that too. Then I discovered the truth about my It is a gift. A sign of God’s love. And so is yours.”

Many of us think of our bodies as burdens that drag us toward failure and guilt. But what if God actually glories in the flesh? What if we had the same joy about our bodies as he does?

Ragan Sutterfield brings us back to a biblical perspective—a freeing, corrective viewpoint that reminds us of the connection between spirit, mind, and body. Along the way, he shares his journey from overweight addict to Ironman competitor. He counts his success, though, not in his decreased clothing size but in his increased understanding of how much God loves the body and what it means to take care of his whole being. This is a story for each of us.

As a teenager, Ragan Sutterfield tried extreme dieting to get rid of childhood chubbiness. As a young adult, he wrestled with his Christian culture’s tenets about the dangers of the body. As a man, he became an obese smoker in a failing marriage. And he began a journey of understanding that changed his life.

Weaving together biblical insight, personal story, and thoughtful reflection, This Is My Body offers an inspiring look at God’s creation of each of us as human beings, in the flesh. It is an examination of spiritual disciplines, sex, self-image, eating, environmental responsibilities, and the church’s role in misunderstandings about the body. It is also a celebration of Communion—the moment when Jesus reminded his disciples that he, too, is flesh. Spiritually rich, this is an eloquent exploration of the body in all its God-given glory.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published February 17, 2015

About the author

Ragan Sutterfield (M.Div. Virginia Theological Seminary) is ordained in the Episcopal Church and serves a parish in his native Arkansas. His writing has appeared in a variety of magazines including The Christian Century, Sojourners, The Oxford American, Men’s Journal, The Englewood Review of Books, Christianity Today and Books & Culture.

Ragan is the author of Wendell Berry and the Given Life (Franciscan Media 2017), This is My Body: From Obesity to Ironman, My Journey into the True Meaning of Flesh, Spirit and Deeper Faith (Convergent/Random House 2015), Cultivating Reality: How the Soil Might Save Us (Cascade 2013), and the small collection of essays Farming as a Spiritual Discipline. He also contributed the opening chapter to the book Sacred Acts: How churches are working to protect the Earth’s climate.

Reviews

[Julie N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I start my actual review, I feel obligated to post a short disclaimer. I've never met Ragan, but I do know his parents very well and even lived with them briefly before I got married. Our lives have overlapped in many ways - we attended the same church (although at different times) and he was my sister's eleventh grade Worldview teacher (she says, "He deserved better than me and the rest of our horrible class"). I love his family dearly, but my love of this book is unrelated to my friendship with the author's parents. It stands on its own merits.

Writing
Absolutely stunning. I can't say enough about how refreshing it is to read a literary work of Christian non-fiction. In terms of quality of writing, particularly as memoir, I think it stands in the same realm as the work of Ann Lamott or even Joan Didion's work in Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinking. It's so refreshing to read a Christian author writing beautifully about faith and taking on a subject that is frequently neglected in spiritual writing.

Entertainment Value
I have to say that one reason Ragan's book appeals to me so much is that our lives do overlap significantly. He writes about the same trauma I experienced in Dennis Rainey's sixth grade Sunday School class about sex and his experiences teaching at a school I attended. While our paths didn't cross, it's always great to read about experiences you can recognize well. In addition, a lot of Ragan's struggles with his physical body mirror my own. We both grew up in a culture that idealized the life of the spirit and minimized the physical body. We've both struggled with weight and sex and food and the environment. I could compare many of my experiences discovering yoga with Ragan's experiences discovering endurance sports and triathlons.

Overall
You'll definitely see this again on my end of the year lists. It's beautifully written and contains life-changing and refreshing ideas about the complete spiritual person, including the physical body. Chrsitians, particularly those who grew up in the evangelical movement of the 90's, will have a lot to identify with here, regardless of whether or not your life overlaps with the Sutterfields. I'll be keeping this one on my shelf to refer back to frequently.

[Dave McNeely · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars seems a little low (and yet 4 stars seems a little high) for a book that was well worth the read. Sutterfield provides a wonderful first-person account of his evolving relationship with his body, highlighted by his journey to complete an Ironman triathlon. What holds this book back from a higher rating in my assessment is that, while Sutterfield shares a style found in many contemporary authors who blend memoir and analysis/reflection such as Lauren Winner and Bryan Stevenson, his skills in both prose and journalism fall behind theirs. That's a high bar, though, and Sutterfield is still a good writer with a good story to share.

[Catharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly open and clear treatment of a topic (our complicated relationship to our physical bodies) that is often subjected to torturous treatment, particularly by Christian authors.
As I was reading it I was thinking of friends in many categories who I thought would really enjoy it--athletes, people familiar with eating disorders, aficionados of contemporary coming-of-age narratives. Written from a Christian perspective, but not for an exclusively Christian audience.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exceptionally well-written work that delivers on the promise of its subtitle. It is a heartfelt exploration of one enfleshed spirit's journey toward the graced wholeness that each of our lives can be ... even if we're not headed for an Ironman.

[Anthony Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there's one complaint, it's that it's heavy on memoir and light on the brass tacks of a theology of fitness. Still, the memoir sections are touching and relatable, and what exegesis and theology is there has the potential to be trailblazing.

[Laura Fabrycky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. I think that had to do with my fearful expectations for the subject matter (bodies - ugh; oh no, an exercise-as-spiritual-formation book - ugh). Sutterfield threads a very fine needle of self-disclosure and discovery, demonstrating just how whole-cloth we are as human beings, and how our bodies (and physicality generally) matter in life and the spiritual life. He has crafted a helpful narrative, offered at times a searing and other times gentle correction to Gnostic temptations. There are some really spectacular chunks of writing in here that I have carefully copied down by hand. Sutterfield is a helpful, wise interlocutor and I plan to read more of his writing after this first go.

[Patricia Mckenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a confession to make that this is not a Catholic book. The author Ragan Sutterfield is in the process of becoming an Episcopal priest. He has a strong faith in the Episcopalian tradition. I felt drawn to this book because of the topic of how are body fits into our spirituality. We are an Incarnational people where Jesus has come to us in our humanity in human history and through the Eucharist everyday.

We believe in the Resurrection of the body at the end of times. Jesus’ resurrected body still had the wounds of his crucifixion when he appeared to his disciples in the upper room. We are called to accept our bodies as part of ourselves as to who we are in this life and the next. That can mean different things to different people. I can identify with the main character in This Is My Body as he struggles against his body early in his life then comes to terms with his body as part of his identity. It is an amazing journey described by Sutterfeld from obesity as a child to an Ironman competition of 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running. The book is steeped in scripture and theology throughout. I am not an athlete or a runner but I can understand when the author says when he runs his body and spirit are one. We take our faith into ourselves through our body in communion and interface with our environment and other people living out our faith through our hands and postures to bring God out to the world.

I enjoyed the format of the book where the author counts down to the Ironman competition in every other chapter in current time and then alternates with his biographical history. There is a restlessness Sutterfield describes with being locked into cubicles in the city and in isolation with living on the farm that is very relatable. I think we can often feel this way when we are trying to find our place within the world where we feel satisfied, engaged and fulfilled. This is My Body is so motivating to connect with your interior life, with God, and with the physical world. I would definitely recommend this book to you. This Is My Body was difficult to put down and a “page turner” as they say. It challenged me in thinking of the body as not just a temple of the Holy Spirit but integral to our experience of God and our expression of our faith.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

BLUF: I am non-religious (agnostic), but I enjoy and recommend this book.

This is My Body is a memoir. There are two story lines in this book. One is a preparation for an Ironman event; the other is an overview of Ragan’s life. A forewarning: I’m not going to do this book any justice with this overview because it’s deeper than these words can really explain.

In preparation for the event, we train with Ragan and feel with him the connection of mind, body, and soul. The dedication that goes into training and preparing for such an event is intense and, through Ragan, we are able to share this experience even if we aren’t looking to experience it ourselves.

In the memoir portion of the book, we travel with Ragan through his life - from college to marriage, from being misguided to spiritually whole, from views on the church to where his view differ, from marital problems to the bliss of new life, etc. Like I said, I’m not giving this book the words it earns..

Being non-religious, I was worried that the religious aspect of this book would be obtrusively dominant in this memoir. Well.. It’s not. Religion is a very important part of a person’s life, yes, but Ragan details his thoughts in a conversational way. He doesn’t push his views on the readers – he explains his life and how he became the man he is today.

Ragan has faults, rants, and hypocritical thoughts like the rest of us. I’m not going to tell you this book affected me religiously and it’s not necessarily inspiring, but this book, Ragan’s life and writing, is enjoyable. It’s nice to see life through another’s eyes, especially when it is as well written as This is My Body is. The story lines are intermingled, but flow well together. If you’re questioning whether you should read this or not, I would recommend you pick it up.

**I received this book free as a part of GoodRead’s First Reads program.”

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this months back but finished it as part of a solo retreat. As an Episcopalian Ironman, I was intrigued as to how this story would weave itself together.

I am grateful to Ragan for his honesty on his journey. He has not only made me think deeply about the triune care for self but also introduced me to several writers of whom I had heard but with whose writings I now yearn to engage.

The convicting moment:

"This was a new kind of gluttony---a million little pleasures distracting from the deeper pleasure that comes from experiencing limits and "noes." (p. 82)

Any elements of our own health must be connected--we cannot separate our spiritual health from physical, our emotional health from our financial. They are intertwined together and must be equally strong to reach wholeness.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've been thinking of making tomorrow better than today in body, mind, and spirit - perhaps this book will help. It is a Christocentric narrative of one man who did not like his body. With the help of friends and family he transformed from the inside out.
Having completed my ninth month as a Crossfitter I related to much of what Ragan wrote. It's a quick read and worth the time.

[Anne Hokenstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful and profound book. The theology of body presented is accessible and real. Sutterfield draws on the theological concept of perichorisis to build a wonderful story of living into a relationship with the triune, creation, and himself. I highly recommend this book.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book on goodreads. Author has a gift for the written word. I appreciate his honesty and humility.