Christians, based upon Christian theology and scriptures, should treat their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. In contrast to the rest of the North American population, Christians ought to be vibrant, healthy humans beings. Yet Christians participate in chronic, preventable disease statistics just as much as any other American. Not only are individual Christians unhealthy, but the church follows instrumentalism and Western medical practice focuses upon pathology—all of which contributes to a culture of disease among congregations that should be hale and hearty. In the midst of such an ill population, weight-loss and fitness programs flourish and the pursuit of health, as found within large entities such as the World Health Organization (WHO), becomes an end in and of itself. Ill-formed Christians pursue health as an idol while at the same time laboring under devastating, life-style related chronic disease.

In order to approach the problems described above, I researched reasons behind America's astronomical levels of obesity and disease. I also investigated instrumentalism, naturalism and Western medicine, and integrative medicine. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae served as a primary resource in articulating an alternative account of health practice. In particular I utilized the Prima Secundae questions 49-54. In order to explore embodied examples of St. Thomas's theology of habit and health I did field research with United Methodist clergy participants in the Clergy Health Initiative pilot program, and with missionaries in the evangelical organization Word Made Flesh. For each I obtained an Institutional Research Board approval and used sociological methods to analyze the qualitative date from my interviews.

Through my research and writing I concluded that Thomas's theology offers an alternative (to the WHO and thousands of diet books) account of health as leading to a virtuous life determined through the daily practice of habit. Instead of health as an end in itself, Thomas provides a teleology for Christians in which practices of health direct us to a deeper love of God and of neighbor and a life of flourishing. His holistic anthropology, which understands the body as integral to habituation, creates the ethical space for the quotidian care of our health and wellbeing as virtuous and faithful. The study of actual clergy and missionaries engaging habits of health demonstrated that by taking the time to cultivate regular practices that benefit wellbeing, Christians can transform into happier, more vital human beings with improved relationships with God and greater service to others.