(Sunday, May 15, 2011, 5:51 AM)
Doubting Thomas, Caravaggio (1602-03), Sanssouci, Potsdam
1. The Christian faith, as is proclaimed in the Apostles' Creed, affirms the belief in the resurrection of the body. In detail, this belief is essentially identical with its formulation by Paul of Tarsus in his Epistles, and, in particular, in 1 Corinthians 15, and, even more specifically in these verses:
2. From the above quotation we see that two points are central for Paul (and for Christianity and for the Catholic Church in particular), about the Resurrection of Christ, and, consequently of all those who will be raised to Life Everlasting:
What is the bottom line?
The fundamental belief of Christianity for the the "hereafter" is NOT the heathenizing-philosophical belief in the "conscious survival of the disincarnated soul", BUT the belief in the resurrection of the body.
Doubting Thomas, Caravaggio (1602-03), Sanssouci, Potsdam
1. The Christian faith, as is proclaimed in the Apostles' Creed, affirms the belief in the resurrection of the body. In detail, this belief is essentially identical with its formulation by Paul of Tarsus in his Epistles, and, in particular, in 1 Corinthians 15, and, even more specifically in these verses:
3
For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received –
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies.
42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
2. From the above quotation we see that two points are central for Paul (and for Christianity and for the Catholic Church in particular), about the Resurrection of Christ, and, consequently of all those who will be raised to Life Everlasting:
a. Jesus is the "firstfuits" (Greek aparchê) of the Resurrection.
b. With the Resurrection (of Jesus Christ first, and then of ALL the Elect), the natural body (sôma psychikon), is transformed in a spiritual body (sôma pneumatikon), so there is NO contrast
between the expressions "corporal resurrection" and "spiritual
resurrection", because the Resurrection is, at the same time, in a body (sôma) and/which is spiritual (pneumatikon).
What is the bottom line?
The fundamental belief of Christianity for the the "hereafter" is NOT the heathenizing-philosophical belief in the "conscious survival of the disincarnated soul", BUT the belief in the resurrection of the body.
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