In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

74 3 The Resurrection of the Dead The promise of resurrection is the soul of history. —Gabriel Marcel1 The resurrection of the body means the resurrection of the life that has been lived. —Romano Guardini2 I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. —Woody Allen Belief in the resurrection of the dead by the power of God is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and is central to Christian faith.3 Tertullian went so far as to say that “the hope of Christians is the resurrection of the dead.”4 And this is so for the simple reason that the final resurrection of humanity is the ultimate fruit of the resurrection of Christ (which is the basis of our hope), and of his glorious Parousia (the definitive manifestation of our hope). Indeed it may be said that the prime and immediate effect of the coming of Jesus Christ in glory will be that of the resurrection of the dead. The Church has taught this doctrine from the earliest times. The Apostles’ Creed speaks consistently of the “resurrection of the flesh,”5 whereas the Creed of Nicea-Constantinople says: “we look forward to the resurrection of the dead.”6 The Quicumque, or Ps.-Athanasian Creed, has: “and at his coming all will rise up, each one with their own body, to give an account of their deeds.”7 Paul VI in the Creed of the People of God says: “Death will be destroyed on the day of the resur1 . G.Marcel, “Structure de l’espérance,” 79. 2. R.Guardini, The Last Things, 69. 3. See especially my study “Risurrezione,” which is closely followed in the coming pages. 4. Tertullian, De res., 1. 5. On this expression, see especially my study “La fórmula ‘Resurrección de la carne’ y su significado para la moral cristiana,” Scripta Theologica 21 (1989): 777–803. 6. DS 150. 7. DS 76. The Resurrection of the Dead 75 rection, when these souls will be united with their bodies.”8 Likewise, the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives ample expression to this fundamental belief and hope of Christians.9 In this chapter we shall first consider the doctrine of final resurrection in Scripture and throughout history, under four headings: (1) the originally Jewish and Christian character of resurrection belief; (2) resurrection in the Old Testament ; (3) resurrection in the New Testament; and (4) Christian witness to resurrection belief: early Christian anthropology and ethics. Later on, we shall examine some questions relating to the theology of resurrection and its implications. Resurrection Belief in Scripture, Theology, and Church Life The Originally Jewish and Christian Character of Resurrection Belief Ancient Sources Although ancient authors such as Aesculapius refer sporadically to the possibility of the dead rising up, for the most part such a notion was considered unthinkable by Greek philosophers and poets such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. Certainly the possibility of universal resurrection was excluded.10 Still, significant traces of resurrection belief are to be found in ancient Egyptian fertility rites,11 although the explanation is far removed from Jewish thought. For the Egyptians, resurrection is understood as a purely natural process, reserved in any case to those whose bodies had in some way been preserved, for example, through mummification. In the Indian Rig-Veda (before 2000 BC) the soul of the deceased is said to be taken by the fire-god and “receives a new, more ‘subtle’ body, and its life is a replica of human life on earth, though freed from all the imperfections that are inseparable from it here.”12 Some authors have suggested that the doctrine of resurrection derives from Persian salvation theology, which, in effect, employs resurrection language.13 Jewish and Persian understandings of resurrection, however, are clearly distinct from one 8. Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, n. 28. 9. See CCC 992–1004. 10. See M.Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period (London: SCM, 1981), vol. 1, 196, nn. 574–75, on the non-revealed aspects of resurrection doctrine. 11. See H.H.Rowley, The Faith of Israel: Aspects of Old Testament Thought (London: SCM, 1956), 161–68; H.Wissmann, “Auferstehung der Toten I/1: Religionsgeschichtlich,” in Theologische Realenzyklop ädie, ed. G.Krause and G.Müller, vol. 4 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1979), 442–43; J.H.Charlesworth, “The Origin and Development of Resurrection Beliefs,” in J.H.Charlesworth, with...

Share