Can These Bones Live? More on the resurrection of the body

Picking up from my last post about the hope of the resurrection of the dead/body:

For Christians, the resurrected body has always been (officially if not in popular imagination) an integral aspect of our ultimate expectation. But affirming that raises other questions such as:

How do bodies that have turned to dust and whose atoms have been scattered and shared by other bodies get resurrected?

First of all, any answer to this questions like this is bound to be speculative and partial. For now we see in a mirror, dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12).  Still, we wonder.

I have been helped in wondering about this by John Polkinghorne, the English theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. In his book, The God of Hope and the End of the World:

Whatever the human soul may be, it is surely what expresses and carries the continuity of living personhood. We already face within this life the problem of what that entity might be. The soul must be the ‘real me’ that links the boy of childhood to the ageing academic of later life. If that carrier of continuity is not a separate spiritual component, what else could it be? It is certainly not merely material. The atoms that make up our bodies are continuously being replaced in the course of wear and tear, eating and drinking. We have very few atoms in our bodies today that were there even two years ago. What does appear to be the carrier of continuity is the immensely complex ‘information-bearing pattern’ in which that matter organised. This pattern is not static; it is modified as we acquire new experiences, insights and memories, in accordance with the dynamic of our living history. It is this information-bearing pattern that is the soul. - p. 105-106

If these ideas contain some truth, we have to acknowledge that this information-bearing pattern will, in the course of nature, be dissolved by the decay of our bodies after death. There is therefore, no intrinsic immortality associated with the soul in this way of understanding it. Death is a real end. However, it need not be an ultimate end, for in Christian understanding only God is ultimate. - p. 107

. . . there is indeed the Christian hope of a destiny beyond death, but it resides not in the presumed immortality of a spiritual soul, but in the divinely guaranteed eschatological sequence of death and resurrection. Only a hope conceived of in this way can do full justice to human psychosomatic unity, and hence to the indispensibility of some form of re-embodiment for a truly human future existence. The only ground for this hope–and the sufficient ground for this hope, as we have already emphasised–lies in the faithfulness of the Creator, in the unrelenting divine love for all creatures. - p. 108 

It is a perfectly coherent hope that the pattern that is a human being could be held in the divine memory after that person’s death. Such a disembodied existence, even if located within the divine remembrance, would be less than fully human. It would be more like the Hebrew concept of the shades in Sheol, though now a Sheol from which the Lord was not absent, but quite the contrary, God was sustsaining it. It is a further coherent hope, and one for which the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the foretaste and guarantee, that God in the eschatological future will re-embody this multitude of preserved information-bearing patterns in some new environment of God’s choosing. - p. 107-108

We could say, I suppose, that, if God can pull of the resurrection of the dead at all, he can take care of the details, and leave it at that. But, the observation that our bodies as we know them now have very few atoms that were there even two years ago seems to help resolve the question at the beginning of this post. Our current bodies are dynamic rather than static, maintaining a continuity of appearance even as their material make-up changes. Might we imagine that if the Christian expectation of the resurrection of the body is true that the "information-bearing pattern" that is the "carrier of continuity" of our personality and physical form will be re-embodied when the New Heaven and New Earth are united (the "new environment of God's choosing")? And wouldn't that mean that our resurrected bodies will be made of the transfigured material of this world -- whether or not that incorporates all the particular atoms that might have made up our bodies at any given moment of our pre-resurrection lives let alone at the time of our death?

That would mean that there would be both continuity and discontinuity between our pre-resurrection and post-resurrection existence, just as we see with Jesus. His resurrection appearances give us a hint of that destiny as does Paul's discussion of the "spiritual body" in 1Corinthians 15. 

For a playful imagining of how this world might look, transfigured into New Creation where the resurrected, transfigured, spiritual bodies will enjoy eternal life partaking in the divine nature see: Ephrem of Edessa (the Syrian) on Paradise.

The Hope of Resurrection of the Dead/Body

When Christians gather for worship they usually say one of two classic affirmations of faith.

They either say the Nicene Creed which includes the line,

"[We believe] in the resurrection of the dead"

or they say the Apostles' Creed which includes the line,

"[I believe] in the resurrection of the body"
 

Thus Christians regularly affirm that our bodies matter – God created them and declared them good after all – and that we expect to be embodied beyond death.

In spite of these affirmations, many contemporary Christians have inculcated a rather gnostic view of of the body and material reality in general as unimportant if not somehow bad. This view leads to an expectation of life after death in which an immortal, immaterial soul escapes the dead body and goes directly to its eternal fate in the spirit-realms of either Heaven or Hell (or maybe Purgatory).

This was driven home to me recently in a conversation with someone who has been a lifelong Christian with consistent church attendance, involvement, and leadership. Despite over 70 years in the church, this Christian spoke of the body as something insignificant that we leave behind when we die. 

I suspect this is not an uncommon view. But, such a view makes little sense in light of the belief the Church and her members affirm in the creeds represented in the lines above, which in turn reflects a more complete biblical view of the indispensableness of the body for our ultimate hope.  This spiritualizing tendency undervalues the goodness of our bodies as creations of God. It also misses the wonder and mystery of the sanctification of embodied life represented in the Incarnation and Ascension. And it negates the aspect of hope contained in the creeds that we await the fullness of  the resurrectioon and restoration not just of our bodies but of new creation at the end of history.

Some contemporary theologians have been attempting to correct this over-spiritualized view of our hope. One of these is Bishop N. T.Wright (see for example Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop or, for a longer, but still accessible treatment, see Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church).

I want to point out that what Wright and others are advocating is not some new teaching. It is the classic Christian understanding that the soul - whatever it is and whether or not it can be separated from the body at all - is incomplete without the body. Thus, the ultimate Christian hope is not that our disembodied souls might enjoy eternal life relieved of our bodies in a spiritual heaven, but that at the Last Day, there will be Resurrection, Judgment, and Life Everlasting as transfigured embodied persons in a restored transfigured New Creation.

Here are some examples:

St. Anthony the Great (ca. 251–356):

God teaches us to keep the body in order–the whole of it, from head to foot; eyes–to look with purity; ears–to listen in peace (or to peaceful things) and not to take pleasure in gossip, slander, and criticism; tongue–to say only what is good, weighing every word, and allowing nothing impure or passionate [passion is a technical term of the early church referring to sinful agitations of the spirit, e.g., anger, envy, greed, lust, etc.] to become mixed with its speech; hands–to be moved primarily for lifting up in prayer and for acts of mercy and generosity; stomach–to be kept within suitable bounds in food and drink, allowing only as much as is needful to support the body, not letting lust and gluttony lead it beyond that measure; feet–to walk righteously, according to the will of God, aiming at the service of good deeds. In this way the whole of the body becomes accustomed to every good and, submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit, gradually changes, so that in the end it begins to participate, in a certain measure, in the qualities of the spiritual body, which it is to receive at the resurrection of the just.

– Directions on Life in Christ, Epistle I. 20 in Early Fathers from the Philokalia

St. Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 306 – 373) in Hymns on Paradise writes:

The soul cannot

have perception of Paradise

without its mate, the body,

its instrument and lyre.

- Hymn VIII.2

Though the soul exists

of itself and for itself,

yet without its companion

it lacks true existence;

it fully resembles an embryo

still in the womb,

whose existence is as yet

bereft of word or thought.

- Hymn VIII.5

That blessed abode

is in no way deficient,

for that place is complete and perfected

in every way,

and the soul cannot

enter there alone,

for is such a state it is in everything

deficient–

in sensation and consciousness;

but on the day of Resurrection

the body, with all its senses,

will enter in as well, one it has been made perfect.

- Hymn VIII. 7

Thus in the delightful mansions

on the border of Paradise

do the souls of the just

and righteous reside

awaiting there

the bodies they love,

so that, at the opening

of the Garden’s gate,

both bodies and souls might proclaim,

amidst Hosannas,

“Blessed is He who has brought Adam from Sheol

And returned him to Paradise in the company of

Many.”

- Hymn VIII. 11

A hundred times finer

and more subtle

are the bodies of the righteous

when they are risen at the Resurrection:

they resemble the mind

which is able,

if it so wills, to stretch out and expand,

or, should it wish, to contract and shrink;

if it shrinks it is in some place,

if it expands, it is in every place.

- Hymn V. 8

Even Dante (c1265–1321), who Bishop Wright takes to task, in his delightful and mostly spiritualized vision of Paradise, retains as essential the hope of the resurrection of the body. From within a circle of dancing light, the soul of Solomon explains,

'Long as the joyous feast of Paradise

shall last, so long our burning love

shall clothe us in the radiance you see.

Our brilliance is in ratio to our love,

our ardor to our vision, and our vision

to the degree of grace vouchafed to us.

When our flesh sanctified and glorified,

shall clothe our souls once more, our person then

will be more pleasing since it is complete;

wherefore, the light generously bestowed

on us by the Supreme Good, is increased --

the light of glory that show Him to us.

It follows, then, that vision must increase,

as must the ardor kindled by the vision,

as must the radiance the ardor gives.

But as a coal burns white in its own fire,

whose inner glow outshines its outer flame

so that its form is clearly visible,

so this effulgence that envelops us now

will be surpassed in brilliance by the flesh

that for so long has lain beneath the ground;

Nor will such light be difficult to bear,

the organs of our bodies will be strengthened

and ready for whatever gives us joy.'

- Paradiso, Canto XIV, Lines 37-60

For Christians, the resurrected body has always been (officially if not in popular imagination) an integral aspect of our ultimate expectation. But affirming that raises other questions such as:

How do bodies that have turned to dust and whose atoms have been scattered and shared by other bodies get resurrected?

Can we expect any conscious existence between our individual deaths and the Resurrection of the dead/body?

Bodily Resurrection: More than a Christian Curiosity

On this third day of the Octave of Easter, a bit more on Resurrection from Raymond Brown:

In our anticipation of God’s ultimate plan, one of two models is usually followed: the model of eventual destruction and new creation, or the model of transformation. Will the material world pass away all be made new, or will somehow the world be transformed and changed into the city of God? The model that the Christian chooses will have an effect on his attitude toward the world and toward the corporeal. What will be destroyed can have only a passing value; what is to be transformed retains its importance. Is the body a shell that one sheds, or is it an intrinsic part of the personality that will forever identify a person? If Jesus, body corrupted in the tomb so that his victory over death did not include bodily resurrection, then the model of destruction and new creation is indicated. If Jesus rose bodily from the dead, then the Christian model should be one of transformation. The problem of the bodily resurrection is not just an example of Christian curiosity; it is related to a major theme in theology: God’s ultimate purpose in creating.
– The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, p. 128-129

A related post: The Matter of Matter and Why it Matters

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Raymond Brown on the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus

Raymond Brown was one of the great biblical scholars of the last third of the 20th century. Brown was a 'critical' scholar who was not afraid to ask hard questions about the scriptures. He was also a faithful Roman Catholic. This is from his historical-critical examination of the resurrection narratives of the gospels:

From a critical study of the biblical evidence I would judge that Christians can and indeed should continue to speak of a bodily resurrection. Our earliest ancestors in the faith proclaimed a bodily resurrection in the sense that they did not believe that Jesus’ body had corrupted in the tomb. However, and this is equally important, Jesus’ risen body was no longer a body as we know bodies, bound by the dimensions of space and time. It is best to follow Paul’s description [in 1 Corinthians 15] of risen bodies as spiritual, not natural or physical (psychos); he can even imply that these bodies are no longer flesh and blood (1 Corinthians 15:50). Small wonder he speaks of a mystery! In our fidelity to proclaiming the bodily resurrection of Jesus, we should never become so defensively governed by apologetics that we do not do justice to this element of transformation and mystery. Christian truth is best served when equal justice is done to the element of continuity implied in bodily resurrection and to the element of eschatological transformation.

The understanding that the resurrection was bodily in the sense that Jesus’ body did not corrupt in the tomb has important theological implications. The resurrection of Jesus was remembered with such emphasis in the church because it explained what God had done for men. Through the resurrection men came to believe in God in a new way; man’s relationship to God was changed; a whole new vision of God and His intention for men was made possible; the whole flow of time and history was redirected. Nevertheless, a stress on the bodily resurrection keeps us from defining this resurrection solely in terms of what God has done for men. The resurrection was and remains, first of all, what God has done for Jesus. It was not an evolution in human consciousness, nor was it the disciples’ brilliant insight into the meaning of the crucifixion–it was the sovereign action of God glorifying Jesus of Nazareth. Only because God has done this for His Son are new possibilities opened for His many children who have come to believe in what He has done.
– The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, p. 127-128

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The Matter of Matter and Why it Matters

or, why resurrection and transfiguration matter

In my last post, I suggested that the resurrection of Jesus, (resurrected—fully and physically alive, empty tomb and all) is essential to Christian faith. One of the reasons this matters is that it affects how we understand matter to matter and what hope we have for the material reality of this world and our material bodies and histories.

Classically, there are two options for addressing matter. Christianity promises a third.

1. Matter is all that matters – the materialist option. In that case, the best we can do is try to avoid as much suffering as possible and "enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can," as The Misfit says in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. You can also try to avoid inflicting any more pain than necessary. You can even seek to alleviate and prevent it if that's how you want to spend your minutes. Or, like The Misfit, you can enjoy "No pleasure but meanness." But, it’s all a matter of taste which you choose. The most we can hope for is that sooner or later, one way or another, each of us will be put out of her or his misery by the oblivion of death.

2. Matter doesn’t really matter – one or another version of spiritualism or Gnosticism. The material world and its tragic history is at most an insignificant backdrop to spiritual drama, or it is a bad and yucky thing, or it is an illusion. The hope then is that we can escape through one or another system of spiritual or mindful liberation. Or we can hope that whatever is eternal will finally shuffle off the mortal coil of material, bodily existence and move on to some realm of spiritual bliss.

3. Christianity offers something rather different in resurrection and transfiguration – matter matters, but it is not all that matters and it matters in a direction. The material world is created by God and declared good. It has been blessed by its being assumed by divinity in the incarnation. In spite of its tragic history, the material world is all part of creation destined for New Creation in resurrection. Matter matters.

If one assumes either 1 or 2, any talk of "resurrection" must be understood as metaphorical with, at best, only tangential connection with the physical and material. It is a spiritual reality only. But, the hope of Christianity is based on a real, physical, material resurrection. First of all, the resurrection of Jesus in the 1st century. But, we also affirm in the Creeds that we believe in (and base our hope in) "the resurrection of the body". And what we hope for matters.

While the evil we humans commit, collaborate with, and suffer under always has a spiritual dimension, it is real, physical, and historical. The trauma, tragedy, and terror are in real space, in real time. The contradictions we live under are historical, not metaphorical or merely spiritual. The Christian hope is not that we will somehow be merely liberated or escape from the trauma, tragedy, and terror of evil, sin, and death - either in our personal stories or in the story of human history. Our hope is that it has been addressed and redressed in the incarnation and crucifixion (here, here, and here) and that it will all be transfigured in resurrection.

I wonder if, when we say we believe in the resurrection of the body, what we are saying is about more than the resurrection of individual bodies (while certainly that as well). Rather, it is the whole Human body stretched out on the rack of history. It is that body that was incorporated in the Incarnation. When Jesus Christ rose again on the third day, so did the promise of the resurrection/transfiguration of all the very material, historical sin and suffering – not metaphorically, but really and physically. A real, physical resurrection matters. There just might be hope that the very real, physical torture and suffering of history (and the persons caught in it as victims, perpetrators and collaborators) does not get the last word and that Death and its servants do not win. And because material reality matters and matters in a particular direction, we cannot but tend to the real material realities that affect physical bodies and the rest of creation.

Matter matters and, rejoicing in the power of the resurrection, we live in the hope that it (including us God-breathed, material, embodied creatures) will be transfigured in resurrection glory.