Ever since Christianity conquered the Greco-Roman world, Western civilization has been a little schizophrenic. On one hand, there’s the traditional pagan view of “the afterlife”: Plato’s “upper world” of eternal souls or intellects liberated from the “lower world” of material and historical embodiment. On the other hand, there’s the radical eschatology of the prophets and the New Testament, where the contrast isn’t between two worlds but between two ages: this age, under sin and death, and the age to come, under righteousness and everlasting life. Although our souls are dispatched to God’s safe-keeping upon death, Christians confess their faith in “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” The whole creation will be renewed, not destroyed, says Paul in Romans 8, so we wait for this final resurrection with patience. Read the rest HERE
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Risen Indeed!
Ever since Christianity conquered the Greco-Roman world, Western civilization has been a little schizophrenic. On one hand, there’s the traditional pagan view of “the afterlife”: Plato’s “upper world” of eternal souls or intellects liberated from the “lower world” of material and historical embodiment. On the other hand, there’s the radical eschatology of the prophets and the New Testament, where the contrast isn’t between two worlds but between two ages: this age, under sin and death, and the age to come, under righteousness and everlasting life. Although our souls are dispatched to God’s safe-keeping upon death, Christians confess their faith in “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” The whole creation will be renewed, not destroyed, says Paul in Romans 8, so we wait for this final resurrection with patience. Read the rest HERE
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