The Lord God, according to the book of Isaiah, “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength”.
A Swedish priest who takes this maxim quite literally has achieved minor celebrity status with exercise videos in which he attends to the body as much as to the soul.
Oskar Arngarden, 38, known as “Crossfitpriest” on social media, alternates between workouts with pulsing dance music soundtracks and images of tranquil landscapes accompanied by reflections on self-acceptance, relationships and the human drive towards perfection.
This mixture of the spiritual and the profane has drawn a sizeable following to the Lutheran chaplain at Uppsala university hospital: his first Instagram account had 160,000 subscribers, and its successor has more than 30,000. “In the Bible it says that your body is your temple,” Arngarden told the AFP news agency. “And part of that is to think, how should I treat my temple?”
While that passage of Corinthians may be more about the evils of fornication and harlots than the merits of 40 burpees followed by a few thrusts of a kettlebell, Arngarden said his physical training was “also in some way a relationship interaction, a prayer with God”.
Advertisement
He insisted that there was “something spiritual in social media” because it allowed its users to speak to others anywhere in the world.
“I want that interaction with other people, to hear their histories and stories,” he said. “It’s a blessing to me just to listen to that.”
Just over half of Sweden’s population of 10.4 million nominally identify with the Lutheran Church of Sweden, which is based in Uppsala and was the state religion until 2000.
However, actual observance has been in decline for decades and fewer than one in ten Swedes now regularly attend church services.
Arngarden said this placed the onus on the clergy to approach the largely secular public rather than vice versa.
Advertisement
“We are held back by a history where the church was in the centre and people came to the church,” he said. “Now we need to find ways for the church to come to meet people. And where are the people? They are on social media.”
