Our Bodies and the Body of Christ: Fearfully and Wonderfully

Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God's Image
by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey

This is an updated edition, combining two earlier books Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and the sequel In His Image. It's a brilliant book, describing the body of Christ and how it should function through the metaphor of the human body. 

Dr. Brand studied as a carpenter, then served as a missionary doctor in India, mainly treating those who suffer from Hansen's disease (leprosy). His words and thoughts have been brought together and organized by Philip Yancey in a seamless way. All you hear is Dr. Brand, even in sections that were updated after Dr. Brand passed away.

Pain, so often viewed as an enemy, is actually the sensation most dedicated to keeping us healthy. If I had the power to choose one gift for my leprosy patients, I would choose the gift of pain. (p. 180)

One of the main goals of the book is to encourage Christians to reach out more to others in the world, those who are hurting physically or emotionally.

Not all of us can serve in parts of the world where human needs abound. But all of us can visit prisons and homeless shelters, bring meals to shut-ins, and minister to single parents or foster children. If we choose to love only in a long-distance way, we will be deprived, for love requires direct contact. (p. 22)

It is best for more mature readers. There are mentions of promiscuity, drug use, and other issues, always from within the Christian lens, but heavy topics nonetheless.

We have learned that what seems attractive and alluring may in fact prove damaging, and that some guidelines on behavior exist for our own good....The state God desires for us, shalom, results in a person fully alive, functioning optimally to the Designer's specifications. (p. 105)

The book is written by non-Catholic Christians, but I didn't see anything concerning in terms of theology. The few comments regarding communion are ones my kids would recognize immediately as Protestant beliefs and therefore not confusing. Catholics are always mentioned with respect. He also touches on his experiences as a Christian in non-Christian countries and in secular environment like medical school in a practical way. Here, he's using the skeleton as a metaphor for his faith.

As I have grappled with these and other issues, I have learned the value of accepting as a rule of life something about which I have intellectual uncertainties. In other words, I have learned to trust the basic skeleton and rely on it even when I cannot figure out how the various bones fit together and why some are shaped the way they are. (p. 113)

He even ends the book with a quote from Teresa of Avila.

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.

There's a discussion guide at the end that some students may find helpful. I would also like to point out that the dust jacket for the hardcover is beautiful. It's a little busy for my taste, but it's embossed and reflects light from the images and the lettering. The pages feel very nice, too. It's always satisfying to see a publisher create a quality product in both the content and the package.

This book has been discussed in the Mater Amabilis Facebook group many times. Some people suggest it for biology or health, but it's really not sufficient as a biology book. While it does explain some aspects of the human body, it only does so in parts, using those parts to uncover a truth of the universal church. I believe it fits best as spiritual reading, but will be most useful in that place for someone who has already learned a little about biology and the human body.

I loved this book. The insights brings aspects of God's kingdom into focus. I intend to recommend it as an option for First Son (twelfth grade) for spiritual reading. First Daughter may begin anatomy and health this year (ninth grade), but I think I'll recommend it to her when she has finished those courses, in tenth or eleventh grade.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book.

Mater Amabilis Level 2 Year 2 (Fifth Grade) Science: Science in Ancient Rome and the Human Body

heart dissection

Last year, First Son was in fifth grade and we followed the science plans at Mater Amabilis for Level 2 Year 2. You can read the schedule of lessons here.

First Son read Brown Paper School book: Blood and Guts by Linda Allison independently. I asked him to create a notebook page as his written narration for the reading, which needed to have some drawings and notes about whatever he had read that day. On the activity days, I required an experiment page with three parts for each activity: What You Did, What Happened, and an Explanation. I would give him page numbers and let him choose one or two activities. Two were assigned, but if he chose a long or more detailed activity, I accepted one. Many of the activities are simple and take only a few minutes. Some of them require a few more esoteric ingredients, like iodine, which I ordered from Home Science Tools.

brain

The dissections excited the most interest. Blood and Guts recommends dissections of a heart, brain, kidney, and eye, all conveniently included in the mammal organs dissection kit from Home Science Tools. I also bought the basic dissection tools.

Everyone always gathered around for the dissections. First Son relished them. We tried to follow the instructions included in the pamphlets. Though it was often difficult for our inexperienced eyes to discern all the details, we noticed aspects of the organs we never would have realized without the dissections. I highly recommend devoting a little time, effort, and budget to them.

The other activity book was The Body Book: Easy-to-Make Hands-on Models That Teach by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne. The paper models cover all sorts of topics. Many of them are layered flaps, but some are three-dimensional. I personally liked the illustrations of the different kind of joints.

First Son became a little attached to them. At the end of the year, he wanted to keep them all. Together, we selected a few of the more manageable ones to place in his binder and took pictures of them all so he could look back on them if he was ever nostalgic. (So far, he hasn't asked to see them.)

The Mater Amabilis website recommends cutting out the parts if you are short on time. I decided my time was worth more than his, so First Son did all the cutting as well as creating the structures.

I assisted occasionally with the sculptures. A few of them had more complicated instructions. For the most part, First Son was able to complete them independently.

This book is non-consumable, which I didn't realize at first. All the pages are designed to be photocopied for each student, and must be because they are double-sided. I actually bought two copies of it, both used, thinking I could just take one apart for the year's activities but I still needed copies of one of the sides. In the end, I scanned all the activity pages, which will save a bunch of time and effort when the next three children go through this course. I'll be able to print all the pages at the beginning of the year and they'll be ready to go.

I imagine most people purchase and use this book in the context of school, but I think a child interested in the body would enjoy working through the book just for fun.


The final book of the year was Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick. First Son read one chapter each day at the end of the year. He was able to narrate fairly well orally though he struggled with written narrations of the book. (In hindsight, I wouldn't have asked for written narrations at all.)

I received my copy of Blood and Guts from another member at PaperBackSwap.com (an affiliate link). I purchased The Body Book used (twice). I bought Galen and the Gateway to Medicine directly from Bethlehem Books during one of their frequent sales. I ordered the dissection materials from Home Science Tools with one of their coupon codes over the summer along with a bunch of other supplies. The Amazon links above are affiliate links. If you click on one, add something to your cart (anything), and purchase it, I receive a small commission. Thanks!

First Son's Favorite Book: What If?

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

I've been thinking about First Son's birthday post. (He'll soon be twelve.) I realized I have never written on the blog about his favorite book of the year. In What If?, the author devises thought experiments that nearly always end in the destruction of the earth and often the universe. First Son was first drawn in by the hilarious illustrations, but soon was reading the text in depth once, twice, three times, and finally enough times to memorize portions of it. We've checked it out so often from the library, I think we had it more than half the year.

First Son selected the chapter on whether you could light up the moon as much as the sun by shining lasers on it from earth as the basis for a speech to his friends. Despite excessive giggling (from the speech teacher's prospective), he conveyed the chapter to his friends well enough for them to understand it. They enjoyed it as much as he did!

I've already recommended this book to a few friends for their sixth and seventh grade boys, but Kansas Dad is the one who originally picked this book out at the library. He shared it with First Son only after reading it himself.

Star Wars, dinosaurs, space flight, baseball, ridiculous cartoons, nuclear power plants: It's all here. I'll never think of this book without remembering First Son giggling so hard he can barely read it out loud to us. Shhh...we bought Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words for his birthday, though it's hard to believe he'll like it more than What If?.