Catherine A. Brekus is an American religious historian at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is especially interested in early America and co-wrote a book titled American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity.

Young children struggle with issues of beauty, too. Etan Boritzer’s book What is Beautiful? (Veronica Lane Books, 2002), aimed at children ages 4 to 10, explores religious and physical aspects of beauty by emphasizing “the inside stuff.”

Read an essay by Rebbetzin Feige Twerski, who is Jewish, about the relationship between beauty and God as expressed in the form of the human body.

Read an essay by beliefnet.com columnist Frederica Mathewes-Green about how cosmetic surgery can move people further away from the idea of being made in God’s image.

The Rev. Sheron Patterson is known for her books and her radio program, The Love Clinic. They focus on Christian relationships, particularly of African-American women. She is senior pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Madeline Crabb is a Christian and self-proclaimed “modesty consultant” who believes that many Christian women need a dose of restraint in their appearance. Crabb is the author of Dressing to Please God: Clothing the Mind, Body, and Spirit, a Training Manual, which offers biblical guidelines for female fashion and personal care. She lives in Bloomington, Ind.

Richard Viladesau is author of Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty and Art (Oxford University Press, 1999), in which he discusses how beauty can reveal the divine. He is a professor of theology at Fordham University, a Catholic institution in New York, N.Y.

Lilian Calles Barger is an independent historian and the author of Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body, an examination of women’s relationships with their bodies and how that affects their Christianity. Contact via her website.

The Guttmache Institute seeks to advance sexual and reproductive health through research, policy analysis and public education. Contact Rebecca Wind.