While the problems of the evangelical Purity Movement have been well documented, one of its biggest errors was promoting a non-theological account of modesty focused almost exclusively on behaviors. With few exceptions, modesty was largely cast as the responsibility of women to avoid certain dress code violations—e.g., short shorts, yoga pants, and above all, visible bra straps—in fulfillment of their obligation to keep the men around them from lusting.

Untethered from a substantive doctrinal core, efforts to teach on and practice modesty too often devolved into arbitrary rules, legalism, and judgmentalism with a heavy dose of shame for women who were deemed incompliant. Evangelicals—particularly the women who suffered from purity culture’s confused sexual ethics—needed something better.

As I worked through John Paul II’s (JPII) Theology of the Body for my dissertation, I was delighted to find something much better. In his reflections on human embodiment, JPII offers a far more robust account of modesty than anything I had ever come across.

And it doesn’t start with kissing dating goodbye. It starts in the Garden.Read more»

Chase Krug | “Modesty Reconsidered: Why Evangelicals Need A Robust Theology Of The Body” | September 23, 2025

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