John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Two opposing accounts of heaven and the risen body are discussed—the materialist account of Irenaeus, and the elaborate theory of the spiritual risen body and its properties of Augustine. In ...
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Two opposing accounts of heaven and the risen body are discussed—the materialist account of Irenaeus, and the elaborate theory of the spiritual risen body and its properties of Augustine. In Augustine there is a curious mixture of a vision of the risen body that is virtually allegorical—that sees the body's existence as subsumed within the community of believers—and a continued attempt to explain it in a semi‐literal way. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Muslim paradise, and of accusations, mostly brought by Christians, that it is a paradise of the senses. The Muslim vision of paradise is discussed through an account of some hadith, and some attempts at allegorical interpretation of the sensual descriptions are noticed.Less
Two opposing accounts of heaven and the risen body are discussed—the materialist account of Irenaeus, and the elaborate theory of the spiritual risen body and its properties of Augustine. In Augustine there is a curious mixture of a vision of the risen body that is virtually allegorical—that sees the body's existence as subsumed within the community of believers—and a continued attempt to explain it in a semi‐literal way. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Muslim paradise, and of accusations, mostly brought by Christians, that it is a paradise of the senses. The Muslim vision of paradise is discussed through an account of some hadith, and some attempts at allegorical interpretation of the sensual descriptions are noticed.
John D. Caputo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230815
- eISBN:
- 9780823235087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230815.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Only those who are unfamiliar with theology would be surprised to hear that theology is all about bodies, very corporeal bodies, mystical bodies, bodies politic, but also ...
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Only those who are unfamiliar with theology would be surprised to hear that theology is all about bodies, very corporeal bodies, mystical bodies, bodies politic, but also what Saint Paul called the soma pneumatikon, a certain “spiritual body”, which, if there is such a thing, is the special interest here. Of all these visible but slightly immaterial and insubstantial incarnations one body in particular stands out, the “risen body” in the New Testament. It is upon just such a body that Christian theology has turned from of old. As such, this body is, in one way or another, theology's bottom line, the final payoff of a certain strong theology, the sum and substance of its faith. Here, the chapter answers questions by way of a hermeneutics of the risen body. The chapter makes this proposal, then, not as a contribution to the exegesis of the relevant New Testament texts, but as a way to answer Paul's question, which was probably, in his mind, a rhetorical one.Less
Only those who are unfamiliar with theology would be surprised to hear that theology is all about bodies, very corporeal bodies, mystical bodies, bodies politic, but also what Saint Paul called the soma pneumatikon, a certain “spiritual body”, which, if there is such a thing, is the special interest here. Of all these visible but slightly immaterial and insubstantial incarnations one body in particular stands out, the “risen body” in the New Testament. It is upon just such a body that Christian theology has turned from of old. As such, this body is, in one way or another, theology's bottom line, the final payoff of a certain strong theology, the sum and substance of its faith. Here, the chapter answers questions by way of a hermeneutics of the risen body. The chapter makes this proposal, then, not as a contribution to the exegesis of the relevant New Testament texts, but as a way to answer Paul's question, which was probably, in his mind, a rhetorical one.
