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Resurrection: The Origin And Future of a Biblical Doctrine
A fresh look a the concept of resurrection in Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and non-canonical texts.>
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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July 4, 2011
Several scholars of the bible and theology provide insight into the concept of the resurrection in Jewish and early Christian thinking. The upshot is that it did not appear in Jewish thinking until 2nd C BCE with 1 Enoch and later Daniel (written during the Maccabean revolt, 164-67 BCE). It also makes a clear appearance in the Dead Sea Scrolls in a couple of writings, including one aptly named On Resurrection, and other later apocryphal works such as the Psalms of Solomon (often attributed to the Pharisees because it does include references to the resurrection. In the first essay Charlesworth helpfully points out that there are many different ways that the concept of the resurrection can be employed, so what might appear to be references to the resurrection say in Ezekiel's discussion about the valley of the dry bones actually is not a reference to an individual resurrection of the body but rather a resurrection of the nation of Israel.
All of this was insightful and I did learn many things. My complaint is that I could have learned so much more. I did not think the insights into how the theology of the resurrection impacts us today was particularly penetrating and cringed when Charlesworth kept bringing up how exotic items in today's physics seems to open up scientific allowance for miracles (huh?, no, not really). And I was disappointed that the details were so lacking. For instance in Boer's treatment of the resurrection in Paul I didn't learn anything about what Paul thought about the resurrection, what he means by 'spiritual bodies' for instance, only that he used rhetoric about the resurrection in a pastoral manner to exhort his readers/listeners to good behavior as they have died in Christ, and thus to their sins, and participate in Christ and in his resurrection. That is all well and good, but it seems that much ink was spilled to make a handful of points and so much more remained to be said.
Overall it was a relatively fast read, I did learn some things, but was disappointed by the notable lack of detail.
All of this was insightful and I did learn many things. My complaint is that I could have learned so much more. I did not think the insights into how the theology of the resurrection impacts us today was particularly penetrating and cringed when Charlesworth kept bringing up how exotic items in today's physics seems to open up scientific allowance for miracles (huh?, no, not really). And I was disappointed that the details were so lacking. For instance in Boer's treatment of the resurrection in Paul I didn't learn anything about what Paul thought about the resurrection, what he means by 'spiritual bodies' for instance, only that he used rhetoric about the resurrection in a pastoral manner to exhort his readers/listeners to good behavior as they have died in Christ, and thus to their sins, and participate in Christ and in his resurrection. That is all well and good, but it seems that much ink was spilled to make a handful of points and so much more remained to be said.
Overall it was a relatively fast read, I did learn some things, but was disappointed by the notable lack of detail.
Displaying 1 of 1 review