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The doctrine of ‘the resurrection of the same body’ in early modern thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2010

LLOYD STRICKLAND
LLOYD STRICKLAND*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wales, Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Judaeo-Christian belief in the general resurrection has long been troubled by the issue of personal identity, but prior to the advent of such concerns there existed a cognate concern about the identity not of the resurrected person, but of the resurrected person's body. Although this latter issue has exercised scholars of various ages, concern with it was particularly keen in early modern times. In this paper I chart the various ways bodily identity was conceived by early modern thinkers in connection with the resurrection, as well as the key objections their contemporaries developed in response.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 163 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

Notes

1. This is true despite the common Christian belief that humans will rise with a spiritual body.

2. Athenagoras ‘The treatise of Athenagoras on the resurrection of the dead’, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds) The Ante-Nicene Fathers, II (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 1977), 149–162.

3. Justin Martyr ‘Extant fragments of his lost work on the resurrection’, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds) Ante-Nicene Christian Library, II (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909), 340–354.

4. Rufinus A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed, J. N. D. Kelly (tr.) (London: Longmans, Green, 1955), 78–86.

5. Tertullian ‘A treatise on the resurrection of the flesh’, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds) Ante-Nicene Christian Library, XV: The Writings of Tertullian, II (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870), 215–332.

6. Methodius ‘From the discourse on the resurrection’, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds) The Ante-Nicene Fathers, VI (Grand Rapids MI: W.M. EerdmFans, 1978), 364–377.

7. See Paul Badham Christian Beliefs about Life after Death (London: Macmillan, 1976), 47.

8. See Caroline Walker Bynum ‘Material continuity, personal survival, and the resurrection of the body: a Scholastic discussion in its medieval and modern contexts’, History of Religions, 30 (1990), 51–85; C. A. Patrides ‘Renaissance and modern thought on the last things: a study in changing conceptions’, Harvard Theological Review, 51 (1958), 179–180.

9. The belief in a bodily resurrection for all, coupled with the tradition identifying the Valley of Jehoshaphat as the location of the last judgement (and thus where all the resurrected will one day be gathered), did, however, give rise to the concern over whether all the resurrected could simultaneously fit into that one valley, though historically this concern was not considered to be as serious as the one currently under discussion. For more information, see my ‘Leibniz and the Jehoshaphat problem’, The Heythrop Journal, 51 (2010), forthcoming.

10. There were some dissenters of course, e.g. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer Lettres juives ou Correspondance philosophique, historique et critique entre un juif voyageur et ses correspondans en divers endroits, V (The Hague, 1738), 393, 397–398; Thomas Burnet A Treatise concerning the State of Departed Souls before, and at, and after the Resurrection (London, 1730), 195ff; Ralph Cudworth The True Intellectual System of the Universe (London, 1678), 798–799; John Locke ‘Resurrectio et quae sequuntur’, in Victor Nuovo (ed.) Writings on Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), 237; Henry More ‘An explanation of the grand mysteries of Godliness’, in The Theological Works of the Most Pious and Learned Henry More (London, 1708), 154.

11. See Anthony Fleury A Short Essay on the General Resurrection (Dublin, 1752), 149–150; Winch Holdsworth A Defence of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Same Body (London, 1727), 144; Menasseh Ben Israel De resurrectione mortuorum, 2nd edn (Groningen, 1676), 198; Philipp van Limborch Theologia Christiana ad praxin pietatis ac promotionem pacis Christianae unice directa (Amsterdam, 1686), 779; John Pearson An Exposition of the Creed, 4th edn (London, 1676), 381; William Wilson A Discourse of the Resurrection (London, 1694), 35, 37–38.

12. See, for example, John Edwards Theologia Reformata, II (London, 1713), 6; Henry Felton The Resurrection of the Same Numerical Body, and its Reunion to the Same Soul; asserted in a Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's. On Easter-Monday, 1725, 3rd edn (London, 1733), 23; Fleury A Short Essay, 152–153.

13. Catharine Trotter A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth, occasioned by his sermon preached before the University of Oxford: on Easter-Monday, concerning the resurrection of the same body (London, 1726), 42.

14. Lucia Dacome ‘Resurrecting by numbers in eighteenth-century England’, Past and Present, 193 (2006), 84.

15. Two useful historical accounts of early modern thinking on various difficulties connected with the resurrection are Dacome ‘Resurrecting by numbers’, 74–110, and Fernando Vidal ‘Brains, bodies, selves, and science: anthropologies of identity and the resurrection of the body’, Critical Inquiry, 28 (2002), 930–974. However, while both devote space to various early modern attempts to explain what it means to say that humans will be resurrected with the same body, neither treats the issue systematically, and the authors do not mention many of the thinkers discussed in this paper.

16. Two recent examples of such efforts are Dean Zimmerman ‘The compatibility of materialism and survival: the “falling elevator” model’, Faith and Philosophy, 16 (1999), 194–212, and David B. Hershenov ‘The metaphysical problem of intermittent existence and the possibility of resurrection’, Faith and Philosophy, 20 (2003), 24–36.

17. Samuel Chandler Sermons, I, 2nd edn (London, 1759), 459. The other version of the cannibal problem invites us to suppose a cannibal who has eaten nothing but human flesh throughout her entire life. In such a case, the cannibal's body would always be entirely composed of flesh that was formerly part of the bodies of other humans. Now, as it was believed that on the day of the resurrection every last scrap of eaten flesh would have to be returned to its original owner, the problem is that, since the cannibal's body has only ever contained eaten flesh, it would seem that she cannot be resurrected at all. Yet the resurrection is supposed to be universal. This version of the cannibal problem was discussed by Aquinas, among others. See Aquinas Summa Contra Gentiles, Charles J. O' Neil (tr.) (New York NY: Image Books, 1957), IV.80.5.

18. E.g. Martin Cohen Wittgenstein's Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 20–24.

19. Humphry Hody The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted (London, 1694), 184. Cf. John Tillotson Sermons on Several Subjects and Occasions, X (London, 1743), 4467; Isaac Watts Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects (London, 1733), 185–186.

20. See Badham Christian Beliefs, 47.

21. William Lupton The Resurrection of the Same Body (Oxford, 1711), 15–16.

22. Pearson An Exposition of the Creed, 381, 388.

23. Wilson A Discourse of the Resurrection, 37ff.

24. Cf. Lupton The Resurrection of the Same Body, 20, 25; Pearson An Exposition of the Creed, 761; Wilson A Discourse of the Resurrection, 37.

25. See, for example, Bernard Nieuwentijt The Religious Philosopher: or, the right use of Contemplating the Works of the Creator, III, John Chamberlayne (tr.) (London, 1719), 1031.

26. Samuel Bold A Discourse concerning the Resurrection of the Same Body (London, 1705), 37–38.

27. Samuel Drew An Essay on the Identity and General Resurrection of the Human Body (Brooklyn NY: Thomas Kirk, 1811), 224–225.

28. Wilson A Discourse of the Resurrection, 35–36, cf. 40.

29. Edwards Theologia Reformata, 8; Fleury A Short Essay, 169–170; Nieuwentijt The Religious Philosopher, 1043.

30. François Xavier de Feller Catéchisme philosophique, ou Recueil d'observations propres à défendre la religion chrétienne contre ses ennemis, 2nd edn (Paris, 1777), 557.

31. Hugo Grotius De veritate religionis Christianae (London, 1755), 97; Robert D'Oyly Four Dissertations (London, 1728), 462.

32. Hody The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted, 185–186, 189.

33. Edward Stillingfleet Fifty Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, (London, 1707), 539.

34. Drew An Essay on the Identity and General Resurrection, 226.

35. Chandler Sermons, 460. Cf. Tillotson Sermons on Several Subjects, 4468.

36. Winch Holdsworth A Sermon Preached before the University of Oxford at St. Mary's on Easter Monday, 1719 (London, 1720), 8.

37. Edwards Theologia Reformata, 9. Edwards is in fact inconsistent on this matter, as he also says (8) that ‘We understand by the same Body, the Body which he [i.e. a man] had when his Soul took its Farewel of the World’, which would make him an adherent of RB1.

38. Ibid., 4; Holdsworth A Sermon Preached, 5.

39. D'Oyly Four Dissertations, 434.

40. Ibid., 455.

41. See, for example, Thomas Browne Religio Medici, 8th edn (London, 1682), 109.

42. Robert Boyle ‘Some physico-theological considerations about the possibility of the resurrection’, in M. A. Stewart (ed.) Selected Philosophical Papers of Robert Boyle (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979), 197.

43. Ibid, 198–199, 206.

44. Tillotson Sermons on Several Subjects, 4468.

45. Hody The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted, 188.

46. Nieuwentijt The Religious Philosopher, 1061; Charles Drelincourt The Christian's Defence against the Fears of Death with Seasonable Directions how to prepare Ourselves to Die Well, 13th edn, Marius D'Assigny (tr.) (London, 1732), 398–399.

47. Felton The Resurrection of the Same Numerical Body, 13.

48. Samuel Johnson The Resurrection of the Same Body, as Asserted and Illustrated by St Paul, 2nd edn (London, 1741), 18.

49. Drew An Essay on the Identity and General Resurrection, 156.

50. Joseph Priestley Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, 2nd edn (Birmingham, 1782), 200.

51. Watts Philosophical Essays, 189.

52. See, for example, Hody The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted, 187–188; Johnson The Resurrection of the Same Body, 22; Watts Philosophical Essays, 190.

53. Wilson A Discourse of the Resurrection, 39.

54. John Locke Mr Locke's Reply to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Answer to his Second Letter (London, 1699), 186.

55. Hody The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted, 191.

56. G. W. Leibniz Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed.), 2nd edn (Berlin, 1930–) series 2, I, 175.

57. Ibid., 2, I, 185.

58. Ibid., 6, I, 533.

59. Ibid., 2, I, 176.

60. Ibid., 6, I, 533.

61. Ibid., 2, I, 185.

62. Ibid., 2, I, 181.

63. Ibid., 2, I, 185.

64. G. W. Leibniz De Summa Rerum, G. H. R. Parkinson (tr.) (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 61.

65. Christia Mercer Leibniz's Metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 287. In a later paper, Mercer downgrades her assessment of Leibniz's doctrine to simply ‘clever’. See Christia Mercer ‘Material difficulties: matter and the metaphysics of resurrection in early modern natural philosophy’, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 26 (2005), 133.

66. Samuel Clarke A Discourse concerning the Being and Attributes of God, the Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation (Glasgow: Richard Griffin and Co., 1823), 327. It should be noted that Clarke did not actually endorse RB6 or his version of the theory behind it; he simply presents it as one possible way of resolving the cannibal problem.

67. Charles Bonnet Contemplation de la Nature, 2nd edn (Amsterdam, 1769), 87.

68. Ibid., 88.

69. Leibniz may well have been influenced by this theory. He certainly mentions it in many texts, e.g. Leibniz Sämtliche Schriften, 2, I, 185.

70. Menasseh De resurrectione mortuorum, 202.

71. For more information on the luz bone, including details of some Renaissance and early modern discussions of it, see Edward Reichman and Fred Rosner ‘The bone called Luz’, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 51 (1996), 52–65. This paper does not, however, mention Menasseh.

72. Charles Bonnet Mémoires autobiographiques de Charles Bonnet de Genève, Raymond Savioz (ed.) (Paris: Vrin, 1948), 292–293.

73. Kenelm Digby Observations vpon Religio Medici (London, 1643), 84.

74. Ibid., 82.

75. Ibid., 85–87.

76. Bynum ‘Material continuity’, 69, 71.

77. Udo Thiel ‘Personal identity’, in Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers (eds) The Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Philosophy, I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 887.

78. See Bynum ‘Material continuity’, 68ff.

79. Leibniz Sämtliche Schriften, 2, I, 183.

80. See Anne A. Davenport ‘The Catholics, the Cathars, and the concept of infinity in the thirteenth century’, Isis, 88 (1997), 269.

81. Descartes ‘Letter to Mesland, 9 February 1645’, in Anthony Kenny (tr. and ed.) Philosophical Letters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), 156–157.

82. Ibid., 157.

83. Menasseh De resurrectione mortuorum, 200.

84. See Badham Christian Beliefs, ch. 5; Patrides ‘Renaissance and modern thought’, 177–178.

85. For example, Peter van Inwagen endorses a more sophisticated form of RB1 in his ‘The possibility of resurrection’, International Journal of Philosophy of Religion, 9 (1978), 121, while Philip L. Quinn considers a version of RB5 in his ‘Personal identity, bodily continuity and resurrection’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 9 (1978), 111–112.

86. I would like to thank Stuart Brown, Daniel J. Cook, Vernon Pratt, and an anonymous Religious Studies referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.