Why a Bodily Resurrection?: The Bodily Resurrection and the Mind/Body Relation (original) (raw)
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Bodily Resurrection and the Dialectic of Spirit and Matter
Theological Studies, 2005
Christian belief in bodily resurrection is implicitly challenged by contemporary natural science with its empirical evidence for the interdependence of mental and bodily functions and their effective cessation at the moment of death. The author argues that only a new philosophical understanding of the relation between spirit and matter in which neither is intelligible without the other can render the notion of resurrection rationally plausible to scientists and offer new possibilities to theologians for explaining both eternal life and the new creation predicted in Revelation 21:1.] JOSEPH A. BRACKEN, S.J., received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Freiburg in Breisgau. He is now retired professor of theology at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, where he continues to research trinitarian theology as well as process philosophy and theology. His recent publications include World without End: Christian Eschatology from a Process Perspective (Eerdmans, 2005) and Christianity and Process Thought: Spirituality for a Changing World (Templeton Foundation, 2006). He is also preparing a volume entitled The Doctrine of God (Sheed and Ward).
Rational Religious Faith in a Bodily Resurrection
Kant and the Question of Theology, 2017
Immanuel Kant’s postulation of immortality is a well-known feature of his development of practical reason. Yet, does this postulate bear any resemblance to the hope of the bodily resurrection from dead found in Christianity? Interpreters, such as Gordon Michalson, have typically presumed that Kantian immortality has no use for the body, even suggesting that the body may well be the cause of humanity’s universal turn toward evil. Yet, in 2010, Aaron Bunch made the case that Kant’s highest good cannot be attained without a bodily resurrection. This paper, in four sections, summarizes the fruit of current research on Kant’s philosophy of religion and develops Bunch’s case. The first two sections will trace a promising line of reasoning in recent interpretations of Kant’s philosophy of religion that understands rational religious faith as the culmination of the first stage in Kant’s establishment of philosophical theology. I will show how Christian theology can both chasten and hasten Kant’s philosophy of religion to consider whether the doctrine of bodily resurrection is a viable element of rational religious faith, even if Kant himself did not include this doctrine in his own development. Section three will revisit and defend Aaron Bunch’s work on Kant and the embodiment of the soul, arguing that Bunch supplies sufficient reason to think that Kant’s philosophy needs the doctrine of bodily resurrection to avoid the absurdum practicum and the loss of hope in the highest good. In the last section, I will expand Bunch’s case by turning to Kant’s Religion. I will show that Kant’s philosophy of religion not only requires belief in a prototype of perfect humanity to answer the question of moral hope but also that Kant’s prototype must be thought of as embodied and resurrected if, as Bunch argues, resurrection is to be thought of as rationally coherent and transcendentally viable. In the end, I will suggest that, although Kant cannot assert dogmatic certainty of the resurrection from the dead, his philosophy certainly provides reasons for rational belief in a bodily resurrection of the dead.
Rethinking Resurrection: Choosing Interdisciplinary Dialogue Over Dualism
2016
Christianity is plagued by two dualistic concepts: first, an ontological dualism that divides the human person into body and soul, and second, an epistemological dualism that claims science and theology are incompatible. However, these polarized (and polarizing) theological frameworks are no longer sufficient, especially as scientific research provides new understanding about the brain and human identity. The existence of the nonphysical soul has long been called into question, thereby creating a theological crisis at the very core of Christian belief: the resurrection. This thesis will examine the crisis as it manifests itself in contemporary Christian society, pointing to the perpetuation of dualistic philosophies as the source of a theological impasse. Finally, it will propose an interdisciplinary solution, revisiting resurrection theology in dialogue with modern science, and providing a way forward for those who seek a way both to participate in the resurrected life, and to proc...
Materialism and the Resurrection: Are the Prospects Improving?
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2011
In 1999 Dean Zimmerman proposed a "falling elevator model" for a bodily resurrection consistent with materialism. Recently he has defended the model against objections, and a slightly diff erent version has been defended by Timothy O'Connor and Jonathan Jacobs. Th is article considers both sets of responses, and fi nds them at best partially successful; a new objection, not previously discussed, is also introduced. It is concluded that the prospects for the falling-elevator model, in either version, are not bright.
A COMPARATIVE ELUCIDATION OF THE RESURRECTION BODY FROM A PAULINE AND ANCIENT CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
2024
The resurrection of the dead is one of the most important dogmatic doctrines as expounded by Apostle Paul. He explained that Christians that die will resurrect with a spiritual body similar to Christ's type of body when he resurrected. However, Christ resurrection body had some physical features and Paul did not explain how the physical features of Christ resurrection body can be connected to other believers that will resurrect. There are many ancient cultures that teach that the physical body needed to be preserved so that it can be qualified for resurrection without which there won't be the resurrection of the body. Paul on the other hand seemed to ignore these beliefs in favour of the view that resurrection body is strictly spiritual. This research is a comparative study that sheds light on the debate regarding the nature of the resurrection body according to The New Testament teaching in comparison with ancient cultures especially those of the Semitic Peoples and other Africans like the Egyptians and the Yorubas. The purpose of this research is to point to the view that Jesus' resurrection body had physical features yet downplayed and deemphasized by Paul. These researchers hope to inspire a study into the nature of the resurrection body.
The revision theory of resurrection
Religious Studies, 2008
A powerful argument against the resurrection of the body is based on the premise that all resurrection theories violate natural laws. We counter this argument by developing a fully naturalistic resurrection theory. We refer to it as the revision theory of resurrection (RTR). Since Hick's replica theory is already highly naturalistic, we use Hick's theory as the basis for the RTR. According to Hick, resurrection is the recreation of an earthly body in another universe. The recreation is a resurrection counterpart. We show that the New Testament supports the idea of resurrection counterparts. The RTR asserts that you are a node in a branching tree of increasingly perfect resurrection counterparts. These ever better counterparts live in increasingly perfect resurrection universes. We give both theological arguments and an empirical argument for the RTR.
European Journal of Theology, 2023
This article explores the content and the context of some key Old Testament passages that speak of the resurrection of the body (Is 25:8, Ez 37:1-14 and Dan 12:1-3). The results are then compared to the teaching of the New Testament about the end-time resurrection. In a third step, the article explores how the earliest church came to understand Jesus’ bodily resurrection as the first instance of the end-time resurrection and which implications his resurrection has according to the New Testament. The article concludes with some practical reflections on the meaning of the hope of bodily resurrection for the Christian life and witness today.
Physicalism, Dualism, Death, and Resurrection
In Pursuit of Truth: A Journal of Christian Scholarship, 2011
In his essay "The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting,"[1] Trenton Merricks argues that the attitudes expressed by the writers of Scripture about both death and resurrection make more sense from a materialist perspective than from a dualist point of view.[2] Here's his argument. The Bible treats death as a great evil. For instance, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 that Christ "must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet" and that "the last enemy is death" (TNIV). At the same time, the Scriptures regard resurrection as a great good. Paul also told the Corinthians (in I Corinthians 15:16-19, TNIV) that, if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, then we are to be pitied more than all men.