Physical Education in Holistic Christian Education

Dualism has continually plagued the Church, especially from the time when Greek philosophers articulated the dualistic view of man in an excellent, scholarly way. Even when the Reformers militated against this phenomenon theologically, it still dominated life in general and Christian living in particular. This book considers the historical tension between the holistic and dualistic view of man in the Church. It strives to do this by setting forth certain examples from history, showing how the Church wrestled with this tension. The main focus is on the place of physical education in the context of Christian education. Research, both in history and in present-day practice, has shown that there is still a tendency to regard the physical as inferior to the spiritual and cerebral. This results in lip service being paid to the area of physical education in Christian schools. This book strives to give physical education its rightful place in Christian education and to contend with dualism in the Christian life generally. For this to happen, Christian stakeholders need to move away from the Greek idea of dualism and re-embrace the Judaic concept of a holistic approach to life.