The Resurrection of the Body

Abstract

A critical examination of the empirical grounds of the notion of bodily resurrection as it relates to conceptions of human nature and the meaning of death. The contrasting traditions embodied in Apollonian and Dionysian approaches to death are distinguished and analyzed, with particular attention to the conceptions of nature and the role of the human body. A third tradition, represented by Augustinian Christianity, is discovered to offer a reconciliation and possible synthesis of Apollonian and Dionysian views. The idea of bodily resurrection contained in this third tradition is analyzed and found to offer an interpretation of death in which death is viewed as neither an “escape” from life nor as a “threat” to it. It is concluded that this approach to death is empirically sound and philosophically defensible quite independently of theological considerations.