Body - Chapter 3 - The resurrection body
Body - Chapter 3 - The resurrection body
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The resurrection body So what does happen when we die? Our reflections on the question of who we are as people and on the place of the soul in our identity leads naturally to the question of life after death. For some people the word ‘soul’ has dual purpose: it describes both who…
Body - Chapter 2 - Keeping body and soul together
Body - Chapter 2 - Keeping body and soul together
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
Keeping body and soul together We are now in a position to turn our attention to Paul and to his view of the body and soul. As we observed in the previous chapter, different understandings of the soul make it hard for us to work out what we mean when we use the word ‘soul’, let a…
Body - Chapter 3 - The resurrection body (part 2)
Body - Chapter 3 - The resurrection body (part 2)
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The resurrection body (part 2) What kind of resurrection bodies? But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a ba…
Body - Chapter 2 - Keeping body and soul together (part 2)
Body - Chapter 2 - Keeping body and soul together (part 2)
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
Keeping body and soul together (part 2) Death and the soul in the Old Testament A fascinating illustration of the importance of the body to the nephesh is the use of the word to refer to someone who has died recently. Numbers 6.6 forbids a Nazirite from going near a nephesh met (…
Body - Chapter 4 - A spiritual body?
Body - Chapter 4 - A spiritual body?
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
A spiritual body? The climax of Paul’s reflection on resurrection bodies comes in 1 Corinthians 15.42–46. Having set up the analogy of resurrection bodies being like a seed that is planted in the ground which needs to be transformed, Paul then laid down parameters which shape how…
Body - Chapter 5 - The life-giving spirit
Body - Chapter 5 - The life-giving spirit
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The life-giving Spirit By now it should be clear that, for Paul, the Spirit/spirit plays a vital role in his positive understanding of bodies. This may cause you to wonder whether we have come a very long way only to arrive back where we began…
Body - Chapter 4 - A spiritual body? (part 2)
Body - Chapter 4 - A spiritual body? (part 2)
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
A spiritual body? (part 2) Mortal bodies Where Paul’s language about bodies overlaps with his language of flesh is precisely when he is talking about bodies of the old creation. One of the important features of Paul’s theology is that he appears to be attempting to make a new and…
Body - Chapter 5 - The life giving Spirit (part 2)
Body - Chapter 5 - The life giving Spirit (part 2)
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The life giving Spirit (part 2) The difference between psuch? and pneuma As we saw above, in the Old Testament there is a considerable overlap between nephesh and rua.: both brought life to the body; both came from God; both could be described, in differing ways, as being the lif…
Body - Chapter 6 - The "me" that is "me"
Body - Chapter 6 - The "me" that is "me"
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The “me” that is “me” It is high time that we return to an issue that has been lurking behind this book’s reflections now for some time. If the argument made so far is correct that Paul does not use the word ‘soul’ in the way that Plato did; that, in his writings, the word refers…
Body - Chapter 7 - Beautiful Bodies?
Body - Chapter 7 - Beautiful Bodies?
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
Beautiful bodies? We are now in the position to return to the place from which we began and, I hope, to see it in new light and from a fresh perspective. A position that assumes that Paul is opposed to bodies, that merges body and flesh together as though they are a single word, …
Body - Chapter 6 - The "me" that is "me (part 2)"
Body - Chapter 6 - The "me" that is "me (part 2)"
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
The “me” that is “me” (part 2) Setting your mind on… The final element of the ‘me-ness of me’ that we need to explore, before turning our attention back to the body in the final two chapters, is the mind. Within Western thought, particularly philosophical thought, the mind has be…
Body - Chapter 7 - Beautiful Bodies (part 2)
Body - Chapter 7 - Beautiful Bodies (part 2)
by SPCK - Paula Gooder
Beautiful bodies? (part 2) Two knotty issues Before we return in the next chapter to look in more detail at what Paul had to say about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, there are two issues that we need to pause over briefly. One is sex; the other is the mortification of th…
Body - Chapter 8 - The body of Christ