Faith Embodied - by Stephen Ko (Paperback)

About the Book

In Faith Embodied, scientist, physician, and pastor Stephen Ko makes the connection between spiritual and physical health. Weaving together insights from faith, science, and medicine, Ko explains how to live and worship incarnationally and glorify God with our bodies.

Book Synopsis

Scientist, physician, and pastor Stephen Ko explains how to live and worship incarnationally and glorify God with our bodies.

Many of us don't see much connection between spiritual and physical health. We say grace before digging into greasy, fatty meals we know are bad for us. We read Scripture on our phones before switching to social media feeds that hijack the neural circuitry in our brains. Or we take our physical health too seriously, distancing ourselves from the sick and the needy whom Jesus embraced.

On his journey from pediatrician to public health officer for the CDC to senior pastor of the largest New York Chinese Alliance Church, Stephen Ko has seen that these divisions between physical and spiritual health are artificial. In Faith Embodied, he reminds us that our "bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Christ incarnate is deity in flesh, and His spirit is incarnate in us. Living and worshiping incarnationally is consciously embracing what the Creator has designed in His image, from the finest, microscopic details to vital organs within our body, enabling the Holy Spirit to work in us.

Faith Embodied will teach you to:

• Understand subconscious ways that thwart the design of the Creator.
• Embrace choices that invite incarnational health, living, and worship.
• Experience God in every aspect of your life, from flesh and bone to heart and soul.
• View the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste) in a different light
• Reflect the image of God in the way you breathe, move, create, love, and rest.

Weaving together insights from faith, science, and medicine, Ko reveals the marvelous ways in which our physical and spiritual health can prepare us to become instruments of God's healing in the world.

A companion streaming video study is also available.

Review Quotes

'After reading this book, you will be inspired to echo the gratitude and wonder of the Psalmist; 'Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous; how well I know it!' (Psalm 139:14 NLT). Dr. Stephen Ko, physician, epidemiologist and theologian, writes as the Paul Brand of our day to integrate amazing insights into human anatomy, physiology, and pathology with biblical truth about our Creator and the Christian faith. Faith Embodied will likely produce in readers a faith emboldened as they gain a greater understanding of how our bodies tell God's loving and redemptive story.'--Dr. Michael Chupp, Chief Executive Officer, Christian Medical & Dental Associations

'As a medical doctor and health practitioner, Dr. Stephen Ko acquaints us afresh with the glories of our human bodies. As a pastor and theologian, he helps us marvel at how the imago Dei, incarnated in each magnificent human body, is wonderfully matched with the 'exact image of the Godhead' manifested in the unique, incarnate Son of God. He reminds us that worship of the Creator and sharing of His redemptive love are beautifully experienced and expressed, as God intended, in flesh.'--Tim Crouch, Vice President for Alliance Missions

'As a seminary dean and professor for 25 years, I have taught a course on Divine Healing many times. This book, Faith Embodied, by my dear friend Dr. Stephen Ko, is a gift from God. It brilliantly bridges the gap between the physical and the spiritual. I will be using it as a text in my next course.'--Dr. Ronald Walborn, Former VP and Dean, Alliance Theological Seminary, Executive Director of Urban Initiatives, Asbury Seminary NYC

'As both pastor and medical expert, Stephen Ko is uniquely positioned to help us recognize, appreciate and live in the way God made us. The God who designed, created, sometimes miraculously heals and will someday raise our bodies cares about our physical health. Because he usually works through what he has already created, however, he invites us to be good stewards of the health resources he has already provided.'--Craig S. Keener, F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary

'Drawing on his rich background as pediatrician, epidemiologist, public health officer, professor and pastor, Stephen Ko has made a significant contribution to a Christian understanding of the human body. Faith Embodied lucidly applies a biblical and theological understanding to spiritual development, worship and every-day life. I highly recommend this readable, engaging book.'--Dennis P. Hollinger, Ph.D., President Emeritus & Senior Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

'Drawing upon his theological training and his medical expertise, Rev. Dr. Ko eloquently reflects on the integration of physical function with worship and Christian service. This book emphatically offers a remedy to the divorce between the physical from the spiritual.'--Daniel K. Eng, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Western Seminary

'Faith Embodied leads us to reflect on how the way God made us impacts our soul and spirit. It is an eyeopening look at things we often take for granted about the way we are made and function. Read it to learn much about who we are and how we can flourish.'--Darrell Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

'Faith Embodied offers a fresh call to love the Lord with heart, soul, mind and strength. Dr. Ko combines a biological analysis of our five senses and movements with a call to a fully embodied life of worship. He invites us to embrace an integrated vision of health and spirituality flowing out of the divine intent for human beings created in the image of God.'--Stanley John, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies (NYC), E.S.J. School of Mission and Ministry, Asbury Theological Seminary

'I've been in church leadership for over two decades and at the age of 41, I suffered a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. I could blame it on stress and sedentary living but ultimately, I could preach about healthy mind, body, and spirit better than I knew how to live it. Dr. Ko writes as a physician and pastor and gives language for how to make the theology of health practical so that you can understand how much physical and spiritual healing is linked together. Understanding this is integral to disciplemaking in our time.'--Daniel Yang, National Director of Churches of Welcome at World Relief

'In earlier times, pastors understood their work to be the cure of souls, in the same way that today's physicians understand their work to be the cure of bodies. Stephen Ko embraces both responsibilities. As a physician and a pastor, he delights in the intricate beauty and mystery our bodies and souls reveal. He discerns how our embodiment shapes our spiritual lives. He diagnoses where we ail. And he knows what 'healthy' means. In Faith Embodied, Stephen turns a doctor's eye and a pastor's heart to our lives--our gloriously and mysteriously embodied lives--and prescribes a way that leads to a life that glorifies God.'--Greg Jao, Senior Assistant to the President, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and author of Your Mind's Mission and The Kingdom of God

'In Faith Embodied, Dr. Ko leads us on a transformative journey to appreciate the way God can redeem us as whole human beings by becoming more aware of the beauty of the body's creation and the mystery of the Spirit's incarnation. He weaves a rich tapestry of evidence from science and biblical faith to inspire us toward full-orbed embodied life which God intends us to live out and proclaim as a global common need.'--Daniel W. O'Neill, MD, MTh - Managing Editor, Christian Journal for Global Health, and Assistant Clinical Professor, University of Connecticut School of Medicine

'It has been an educational, informational and motivating read. It has challenged me to look more closely at much of what I take for granted regarding our senses, creativity, rest and worship. Grounding your descriptions and prescriptions solidly on the word of God and His revelation in the incarnation of our Lord (looking to Jesus), ensures its timeless value.'--Rajan Matthews, President, Alliance University

'It's not often one encounters book that is a perfect blend of Scripture, theology, stories, and medical expertise, all in one. But Dr. Stephen Ko has provided readers with just such a book in Faith Embodied. You will learn so much as you read it, and not just about the wonders of the physical body, but also about the spiritual implications of what it means to be created in God's image. This is a deeply encouraging and insightful book with a holistic depiction of faith that will feed your mind, body, and soul.'--Helen Lee, author and speaker

'Read Stephen Ko's new book that links physical and spiritual wellness in a way you have never thought about before. You will look at things differently once you read his insights to both health and Scripture.'--Jim Cymbala, Senior Pastor, The Brooklyn Tabernacle

'This is a beautiful book filled with anecdotes drawn from Rev. Ko's unique combination of medical and pastoral experience. Rev. Ko fills the reader with appreciation for our bodiliness as part of God's purpose and incentivizes us to make the most of our senses and faculties by offering them in love and worship. A life-changing resource for individuals and churches.'--Kirsteen Kim, PhD, Paul E. Pierson Professor of World Christianity and Associate Dean for the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary

'We need doctors for our bodies. We increasingly for our minds as well. With Stephen Ko, we have a doctor for body, mind, and spirit - someone who can gently probe various ways we are broken by sin and guide us to Jesus who redeems. Read this book and discover more fully what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made by God.'--Dr. Walter Kim, President of the National Association of Evangelicals