Rev. Dr Maja Whitaker is the Academic Dean and a lecturer in Practical Theology at Laidlaw College, New Zealand, and an ordained pastor in the Equippers network of churches.

• List of Contributors viiAcknowledgements xi1 Introduction 1Maja Whitaker2 Christian Hope through an Embodied Telos 7Amanda Martinez Beck3 Mirrors, Pedestals and a Cross: The Cult of Perfection and the Beauty of Self-sacrifice 24Jessica J. Schroeder4 Idolizing Thinness: Critiquing the False Claims of Diet Culture 43Jennifer Bowden5 Desire and Discipleship: Towards Body Acceptance 60Kristy Botha6 Unspeakable Fat, Unspeakable Beauty: Fatness, Apophasis and the Overflowing of Excess 77Hannah Bacon7 Perfectly Able, Beautiful and Slim: Desired Bodies in the New Creation, Shamed Bodies in the Old 99Maja Whitaker8 Are We Having Great Sex Yet? Women, Their Bodies and Their Pleasure 115Lisa Isherwood9 ‘How Is Your Beloved Better Than Others, Most Beautiful of Women?’: Song of Songs 5.9–16 and the Primary Prevention of Domestic Abuse 133Erin Martine Hutton10 A Shameful Perfection: Racism and the Religion of Thinness 153Michelle Mary Lelwica11 Conclusion 173Maja WhitakerA Liturgy and Benediction 179Index of Bible References 181Index of Names and Subjects 185

Rich in evidence, profound in theological wisdom, I felt liberated by reading this book. At times deeply uncomfortable in its focus on tackling taboos about women’s bodies, it points towards a better way. Its writers take on the appearance myth, the quest for external self-improvement, and other lies about what women should look like and who we should be, provocatively challenging the narratives about our bodies that are pervasive in both the Church and wider society. But it doesn’t stop there. I was encouraged by its commitment to offering applications and alternative ways of existing in the bodies that we have been given.