Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - RE: C-P: Paul and Plato

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Jerry Sumney <jsumney AT lextheo.edu>
  • To: 'Corpus-paul' <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: C-P: Paul and Plato
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 22:30:15 -0400


Liz wrote:

I think the importance of Christ to him is that he can die to the body, and
be alive in the spirit. This strikes me as an abnegation of the created
order, of the body, of bodily life, and the taking on of what he deems a
spiritual existence. That to me is the point of Christ's death. By
participating in that death, you can change from an earthly, temperal,
fleshy existence, to an a spiritual existence which is eternal life.


Jerry replies:

Perhaps a look at 1 Cor 15 can help here. The language may be unclear in
many ways there, but I think it makes an important point. As I understand
it, 1 Cor 15 rejects the idea that eternal existence is that of a
soul/spirit without a body (for the context of the list discussion, Paul is
rejecting something like what Plato might want). Paul sees embodied
existence as the only acceptable afterlife for Christians. Though it is a
"spiritual body" (see Dale Martin's reading of this in _The Corinthian
Body_), it is a body which, if Martin is correct, is still related to
material existence--if the only two categories are spirit and matter.

Jerry
Jerry L. Sumney
Lexington Theological Seminary
631 S. Limestone
Lexington, KY 40508
jsumney AT lextheo.edu
(606) 252-0361






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page