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From: nlt@duke.UUCP (Nancy L. Tinkham)
Newsgroups: mod.religion.christian
Subject: Re: the significance of the resurrection
Message-ID: <7084@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 17-Nov-86 01:01:25 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.7084
Posted: Mon Nov 17 01:01:25 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Nov-86 02:42:03 EST
Sender: hedrick@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Duke Univ.
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In his recent article, Dave Hatcher asks the following:

> I have the hardest time understanding why the promise of a "bodily
> resurrection" is of such importance for Christians. Isn't God a
> spiritual being? Isn't our separation from God a spiritual separation?
> And isn't our relationship with God a spiritual relationship?

and later,
	
>	1) What is being saved in order to bring the body to God?
>	2) The above question leads into, What are we?

   The stress in Christian tradition on the resurrection of the body, as
opposed to mere immortality of the soul/spirit, comes from the view of
what a human being is (as, indeed, Dave's questions suggest).  In the best
of early Christian thought, a human being is seen not as a soul which
happens to be temporarily trapped in a body, but rather as a soul and body
together, an entity which is both spiritual and physical.  Since an essential
part of human life is physical existence, in order to say a person
"lives forever" one must say that the person has a continuing physical
existence; otherwise, the "everlasting" life is not full human life.

   In other words, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is an
affirmation that the whole person, rather than just a part of the person,
will live forever.

   In reply to the first question ("What is being saved...?"), it is the
whole human person that is saved.  It is true that sin and salvation are
more obviously associated with spirit than with body; nevertheless, because
spirit and body are so closely interrelated, humans rarely if ever act
as pure spirit.  Instead, we see spiritual decisions and impulses translated
into physical actions, and conversely physical actions influencing the spirit.
The Redemptive Act itself is a physical event, a crucifixion; and the means
by which salvation is enacted in our lives are not only "spiritual" actions
such as prayer, meditation, and the cultivation of feelings of compassion,
but also physical actions:  verbal confessions of faith, baptism and other
sacraments, acting in a loving manner toward fellow humans.

   It is because of this inseparability of spirit from body that the Christian
tradition affirms the resurrection of the body and speaks of salvation of
both body and soul.


                                           Nancy L. Tinkham
                                           ...duke!nlt