Book Review: Fat Church-Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation (By Danny Bawibikthawng)

 Book Review: Fat Church-Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation by Anastasia E. B. Kidd

By Danny Bawibikthawng 

 

Anastasia E. B. Kidd’s Fat Church: Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation is a prophetic, courageous, and deeply compassionate work that reimagines what it means to proclaim the gospel in the twenty-first century. Written with both academic precision and pastoral sensitivity, Kidd exposes one of the most hidden injustices within Christianity: the moralization of body size and the church’s complicity in promoting anti-fat bias. Her central argument is that the gospel’s liberating message has too often been reduced to a spiritualized and body-denying theology that fails to affirm the sacredness of all human embodiment. Kidd’s theological reflections invite believers to recover a holistic gospel where the love of God affirms every body, not as an afterthought, but as the very site of divine grace.

 

Summary and Core Argument

 

In the Prologue: Welcome to the Party (pp. 3-13), Kidd begins with a bold declaration that the “party of God’s kingdom” welcomes every body to the table, without condition or hierarchy. She writes, “the gospel of fat liberation calls us to confront the lies that tell us only certain kinds of bodies deserve belonging or visibility in sacred spaces” (p. 9). This sets the tone for the book’s mission: to reclaim the gospel as a radical act of inclusion. The party metaphor captures her vision that the body of Christ is meant to be a celebration of divine diversity rather than a system of exclusion.

 

From chapters 2 through 8 (pp. 23-108), Kidd traces the historical and theological development of what she calls the “unholy trinity” of fatphobia, racism, and sexism. These oppressive ideologies, she argues, have become intertwined within Western Christianity, forming a distorted image of holiness that equates thinness with virtue and excess with sin. Her research draws on feminist theology, disability studies, and liberation theology to uncover how both theology and culture have participated in policing bodies. In this sense, the church has too often turned the body into a battlefield instead of a temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

Kidd’s writing reflects a deep awareness of how systems of domination intersect. She highlights how fatphobia and anti-blackness have historically reinforced each other through colonial narratives that associate beauty, purity, and power with whiteness and restraint. She cites sociological research showing how diet culture, medical discourse, and even church teachings perpetuate body shame as a form of moral control. Her challenge to the church is clear: to reclaim the gospel as a message of embodied grace that celebrates, rather than disciplines, the diversity of human form.

 

Theological and Pastoral Implications

 

Kidd’s theology of embodiment is grounded in the doctrine of the Incarnation. If God took on human flesh in Jesus Christ, then every body regardless of size, ability, or color that reflects divine dignity. This incarnational perspective dismantles the false dualism between spirit and body, replacing shame with sacredness. As she observes, “Fatness, like all forms of embodiment, is part of the goodness of creation” (p. 77). The call to fat liberation is therefore not merely about body positivity; it is a call to theological repentance. Churches must confess the ways they have internalized cultural idolatries of beauty, purity, and perfection.

 

Kidd’s message resonates with other theologians who have reclaimed embodiment as central to Christian ethics. Sonya Renee Taylor, in The Body Is Not an Apology, argues that radical self-love is a spiritual act of resistance against systems that profit from body shame. Traci West’s Disruptive Christian Ethics likewise insists that racism, sexism, and bodily oppression must be addressed together as moral failures of the church. Kidd’s work joins this lineage by making fat liberation an essential dimension of Christian discipleship and social justice.

 

For faith leaders, the practical implications are profound. Kidd challenges congregations to reconsider how worship, architecture, and community practices might unintentionally exclude people. Churches that design narrow pews, promote fasting as a sign of faith, or equate physical health with spiritual maturity all participate in subtle forms of discrimination. Instead, Kidd advocates for a “fat-affirming ecclesiology” where every person is welcomed and celebrated as they are. Accessibility, hospitality, and inclusion become theological virtues, not optional programs.

 

Relevance to Immigrant and Multicultural Contexts

 

Reading Fat Church through the lens of immigrant ministry reveals additional layers of meaning. In many immigrant congregations, including those of Myanmar descent, body image, language, and culture often become intertwined with notions of worth and respectability. Immigrant parents frequently carry the pain of being stereotyped as uneducated or inferior simply because they struggle with English or cultural adaptation. At the same time, their children who grow up in America sometimes internalize these biases, viewing their parents as less capable. Kidd’s critique of fatphobia and her theology of inclusion speak directly to these patterns of internalized prejudice.

 

The book also exposes the broader spiritual danger of segregation within immigrant churches. Many congregations believe that “our church is for our people only,” leading to isolation from other ethnic and racial communities. Kidd’s theology invites us to resist such divisions. The gospel of liberation is not for one tribe or nation; it is for all who bear the image of God. The church must become a place where differences of language, body, and culture are celebrated as reflections of divine creativity. As an immigrant pastor, I have witnessed how cultural and bodily diversity can become sources of tension. Yet Kidd’s message reminds us that the church’s mission is not to protect purity, but to practice hospitality. In Christ, unity does not erase difference; it embraces it.

 

Moreover, Fat Church challenges the immigrant church to confront its own inherited hierarchies of color and class. Many of us grew up hearing biased messages such as “do not associate with people of darker skin” or “stay within your group.” Kidd’s insistence that every body bears the imago Dei dismantles such prejudices at their root. Her theology reclaims God’s vision in Genesis 1:27, where every person, regardless of race, gender, or body type, is created in the image of God. The immigrant church must learn to reflect that truth both theologically and practically by fostering relationships beyond ethnic boundaries.

 

A Call to Leadership Transformation

 

For pastors and ministry leaders, Kidd’s work calls for a reorientation of leadership itself. True pastoral care requires seeing every body as holy ground. In my seventeen years of ministry in the United States, I have learned that leadership often grows through hardship. Each problem the church faces whether it is lack of space, limited finances, or internal division becomes a new opportunity to see how God answers prayer. Kidd’s work reinforces this truth by reminding leaders that even discomfort and disruption can lead to liberation. Transformation requires patience, humility, and a willingness to be uncomfortable as God reshapes our vision of community.

 

Kidd’s voice is particularly prophetic in her call to connect body liberation with social and political awareness. She exposes how capitalism and consumerism profit from people’s insecurities. The church, instead of resisting these forces, has too often adopted them through programs that promise “spiritual fitness” or “healthy living” as signs of holiness. Kidd reminds us that liberation must begin in the body but cannot stop there. True transformation requires dismantling the systems economic, cultural, and theological that benefit from human shame. This vision aligns with liberation theology’s call to side with the oppressed, but Kidd extends it into the very flesh of human existence.

 

Personal Reflection

 

Reading Fat Church has been a transformative experience for me as both a student and a pastor. Dr. Kidd’s courage to write about such a sensitive issue inspires me to confront the hidden biases that persist within myself and my community. Her work speaks to all who have ever felt unseen or undervalued because of their bodies, accents, or backgrounds. She reminds us that the gospel’s power lies not in perfection, but in grace.

 

In a time when churches often struggle to address difference, Kidd’s theology offers a way forward. She gives language to what many have felt but could not express: that every act of exclusion wounds the body of Christ, and every act of inclusion reveals His glory. Her work reminds me that our task as leaders is not to build perfect churches, but to nurture communities where God’s love can dwell freely in every person.

 

 

Bibliography 

 

Kidd, Anastasia E. B. Fat Church: Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2023.

 

Taylor, Sonya Renee. The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2018.

 

West, Traci C. Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019.

 

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

 

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.