CHRISTIAN SYMBOLOGY AND PHYSICAL CULTURE Every man is immediately concerned with the care of his own body

The article constitutes a review of works on social sciences, most importantly philosophy, theology and sociology, with the aim to provide a picture of physical culture from the angle of religious symbology that invokes the archetype of creation of reality, and of human beings, in particular. The author seeks to reveal, within religion and theology, the archetypal meaning of human activity aimed at refining one’s health and physical, structural and functional potentials. Symbolic imagination, which might seem insignificant from the point of view of the humanities and social sciences which deal with physical culture, can be very useful to explain complex phenomena within physical culture. Many intellectuals cited in this paper underline the significance of the symbolic sphere of human life, especially within religion and theology. The symbolic sphere of culture is a fundamental sphere of people’s lives. In a different context, A. Kłoskowska, seconded by great anthropologists of culture and sociologists of religion, also names it as one of the fundamental spheres of human life. The modern humanities show an alarming tendency to become overly specialised, parcelled out and disintegrated1. As a result of the fragmentation, the sciences lose the ability t