1 - The Adumbration of the Resurrection

Summary

Chapter 1 locates Augustine’s earliest documentary adumbration of the resurrection in Soliloquia. It first contextualizes Augustine’s theology of the resurrection within the early Church by surveying the thoughts of other closely connected patristic theologians on the resurrection: Tertullian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, and Gregory of Nyssa. It then offers an approach to and an appreciation of the resurrection in Augustine’s earliest works, where he investigates the structure of the human person, identifies the essence of the happy life, and considers the status of the body. While Augustine’s mention of and allusions to the resurrection remain ambiguous, along with the tensions it generates with certain adopted Platonic and Neoplatonic doctrines, their significances remain. His later adjustments to and attenuations of his markedly philosophical notions of the soul’s immortality and the body’s dispensability evince his commitments to the Catholic faith in the resurrection and to the God of Jesus Christ.