Nudity, in its purest form, has been interwoven with spirituality and religion throughout history. However, it also stands at a contentious intersection where some spiritual practices celebrate it as a form of liberation and honesty, while others view it as a symbol of temptation and sin. This week in our Undressed Thread, we're exploring the complex relationship between nudity, spirituality, and religious beliefs.
How does nudity factor into your personal spirituality or spiritual practices?
Have you encountered any conflicts between your views on nudity and your religious or spiritual beliefs?
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We're excited to hear your stories and insights. Leave a comment with your thoughts and experiences! 🪐
Interesting and valid distinction! I think often our own spirituality is our interpretation or divergence from traditional doctrine. I feel like you see many very religious people who find spiritual meaning in nudity though their church or congregation may look at it very differently.
The sad thing is that Christianity doesn't actually have a biblical doctrine on the topic. A cognitive dissonance with culture won't allow most Christians see that. Biblically, G-d commanded one of His prophets to prophecy for three years naked. There are several instances where people prophecied naked. Baptisms were done publicly naked throughout history. They use the verse on modesty to justify their stance, but that verse is referring to dressing with gold, and elaborately braided hair. It has nothing to do with skin coverage.
There are several large and well-organized groups of Christian Naturists - I don’t represent them nor speak for them, but I find impressive the amount of time they dedicate to justifying nudity through biblical references. I would think it’s a one-and-done kind of thing: there’s the verse, OK let’s move on. But there seems to be a need to revisit and revisit these verses or passages and maybe that’s what some folks find spiritual about it, I don’t know.
I think anything that is written is open for interpretation. And when the writing has already been rewritten and reinterpreted multiple times, conflating parables with nonfiction, mixing metaphors with reality, containing certain other contradictions, it seems to me that anyone rhetorically gifted enough could spin just about any justification out of biblical text. But then I am far from a theologian
Right - something like cabalistic (sp?) interpretations, remembering the original written Hebrew of some of the biblical books didn’t even include the vowels.
I guess that for people who believe that the bible is the word of god, there would be pleasure and spiritual satisfaction to be found in passages justifying some aspect of life, whether nudity or dancing or drinking wine (?). I’m in the camp that feels that nudity is a way of feeling closer to nature and is in that way in and of itself spiritual - no bible or other holy book passages necessary.
present religious practices doesn't encourage nudism rather it forbids it. However Jainism & Naga saints embrace nudism & is a major part of their religious practices. Few centuries back certain religious rituals were performed in naked & we find it in the history. This cycle will go on as the time passes. I don't have any personal conflict in my naturism passion & personal spirituality.
I'm a Christian clergyman who had my first "nudist" experience at a German spa when I was 31; but I think of myself as a "congenital" naked-getting guy. Retired, now, I live naked virtually all the time when I'm at home: so to incorporate my naked life into my spiritual practice is a "no-brainer". I approve of what one of my Christian brothers has said: "Increasingly, nakedness commends itself as a spiritual practice." One of those practices is "relinquishment"; I like what Pete Williams has written in the AANR Bulletin about the practice of "relinquishment", and including the regular emptying of one's closets - and getting naked - as an aspect of that.
I know there are "Christian Naturist" groups, and a number of people within those groups have been pretty zealous about finding Biblical support for their naturist/nudist practices; but often I find their ways of interpreting scripture tortured and legalistic. OK: at least they're not using the scriptures to beat me INTO my clothes; instead their point is to get me OUT of them, which I already am. But Pope John Paul II has written a really profound support of nakedness from an authoritative Roman Catholic perspective; and I've met a number of clergypersons and their spouses from a variety of denominational perspectives at a number of naked venues; and any one of us could have been preaching at the photo you use to begin this discussion. So it's enough for me to say that I experience myself as "clothed with Christ's righteousness - and I need quite literally nothing else".
So I'd say, my being naked is an enhancement of my practice of Christian spirituality - they are not practices in conflict with each other.
And I know I'm not alone. I moved to a new urban center recently; at a naked social gathering, I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye a fellow I'd seen in the church I had begun attending. Six weeks later, another naked social gathering; I was sitting at the coffee table when I saw him come in the door. I looked hard at him and he looked hard at me: and a few minutes later we were sharing coffee together, just as we do at church: with a singular lamentable difference.
My Religion is Anglican albeit I am on the progressive side but I think if I tried to prophecy naked in the Twenty-First Century the police and the louder majority of Christianity and Hollywood would throw the book at me.
nakedness and spirituality are my way of life. meditation which is a daily practice for me is usually done in the nude. it all is so very natural free and honest
I love that, thank you for sharing. I’ve never practiced meditation in a spiritual sense, but I have to promote mindfulness and calm, and I feel like being nude really helps me return to my body and be present, and I find it to be meditative other times just by providing a very physical, sensory experience. I can totally see why it would be a part of your daily practice
My personal spirituality embraces it. My "religion" forbid it.
Interesting and valid distinction! I think often our own spirituality is our interpretation or divergence from traditional doctrine. I feel like you see many very religious people who find spiritual meaning in nudity though their church or congregation may look at it very differently.
The sad thing is that Christianity doesn't actually have a biblical doctrine on the topic. A cognitive dissonance with culture won't allow most Christians see that. Biblically, G-d commanded one of His prophets to prophecy for three years naked. There are several instances where people prophecied naked. Baptisms were done publicly naked throughout history. They use the verse on modesty to justify their stance, but that verse is referring to dressing with gold, and elaborately braided hair. It has nothing to do with skin coverage.
There are several large and well-organized groups of Christian Naturists - I don’t represent them nor speak for them, but I find impressive the amount of time they dedicate to justifying nudity through biblical references. I would think it’s a one-and-done kind of thing: there’s the verse, OK let’s move on. But there seems to be a need to revisit and revisit these verses or passages and maybe that’s what some folks find spiritual about it, I don’t know.
I think anything that is written is open for interpretation. And when the writing has already been rewritten and reinterpreted multiple times, conflating parables with nonfiction, mixing metaphors with reality, containing certain other contradictions, it seems to me that anyone rhetorically gifted enough could spin just about any justification out of biblical text. But then I am far from a theologian
Right - something like cabalistic (sp?) interpretations, remembering the original written Hebrew of some of the biblical books didn’t even include the vowels.
I guess that for people who believe that the bible is the word of god, there would be pleasure and spiritual satisfaction to be found in passages justifying some aspect of life, whether nudity or dancing or drinking wine (?). I’m in the camp that feels that nudity is a way of feeling closer to nature and is in that way in and of itself spiritual - no bible or other holy book passages necessary.
Well said. I certainly find a deeper meaning in it.
present religious practices doesn't encourage nudism rather it forbids it. However Jainism & Naga saints embrace nudism & is a major part of their religious practices. Few centuries back certain religious rituals were performed in naked & we find it in the history. This cycle will go on as the time passes. I don't have any personal conflict in my naturism passion & personal spirituality.
I'm a Christian clergyman who had my first "nudist" experience at a German spa when I was 31; but I think of myself as a "congenital" naked-getting guy. Retired, now, I live naked virtually all the time when I'm at home: so to incorporate my naked life into my spiritual practice is a "no-brainer". I approve of what one of my Christian brothers has said: "Increasingly, nakedness commends itself as a spiritual practice." One of those practices is "relinquishment"; I like what Pete Williams has written in the AANR Bulletin about the practice of "relinquishment", and including the regular emptying of one's closets - and getting naked - as an aspect of that.
I know there are "Christian Naturist" groups, and a number of people within those groups have been pretty zealous about finding Biblical support for their naturist/nudist practices; but often I find their ways of interpreting scripture tortured and legalistic. OK: at least they're not using the scriptures to beat me INTO my clothes; instead their point is to get me OUT of them, which I already am. But Pope John Paul II has written a really profound support of nakedness from an authoritative Roman Catholic perspective; and I've met a number of clergypersons and their spouses from a variety of denominational perspectives at a number of naked venues; and any one of us could have been preaching at the photo you use to begin this discussion. So it's enough for me to say that I experience myself as "clothed with Christ's righteousness - and I need quite literally nothing else".
So I'd say, my being naked is an enhancement of my practice of Christian spirituality - they are not practices in conflict with each other.
And I know I'm not alone. I moved to a new urban center recently; at a naked social gathering, I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye a fellow I'd seen in the church I had begun attending. Six weeks later, another naked social gathering; I was sitting at the coffee table when I saw him come in the door. I looked hard at him and he looked hard at me: and a few minutes later we were sharing coffee together, just as we do at church: with a singular lamentable difference.
Allen
Wonderful perspective. Thank you for sharing!
My Religion is Anglican albeit I am on the progressive side but I think if I tried to prophecy naked in the Twenty-First Century the police and the louder majority of Christianity and Hollywood would throw the book at me.
nakedness and spirituality are my way of life. meditation which is a daily practice for me is usually done in the nude. it all is so very natural free and honest
I love that, thank you for sharing. I’ve never practiced meditation in a spiritual sense, but I have to promote mindfulness and calm, and I feel like being nude really helps me return to my body and be present, and I find it to be meditative other times just by providing a very physical, sensory experience. I can totally see why it would be a part of your daily practice