Do we "look forward to the Resurrection from the dead"?

Where is your Hope?

Here-

Or here-



Over the last twelve years I have become increasingly troubled by what I have heard concerning people's thoughts on life after death.  The first thought that troubles me is that many people hold the view that personal identity is reducible to an immortal soul, a soul which continues after death in a slightly less corporal fashion and that the Resurrection is simply an afterthought.  This is contrary to the sacred scriptures and our Liturgical tradition which again and again repeats that Christ is the ONLY Immortal one, that eternal life is in Him, and that, as the creed states, we are to “look forward to the Resurrection of the Dead.”  The hope of the Scriptures, of the Liturgy, of the Martyrs of every age, and of the Fathers of the Church is grounded upon the Resurrection of Christ and His promise that He will raise us up when He comes again.  When we put our hope in our own soul’s supposed natural immortality we are not far from believing in salvation as simply being based on our own merit or on a confession of faith.  I can imagine that what I have written may seem a bit extreme but I ask you to take the time to read the Funeral Service for yourself (http://www.goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts/funeral2) as well as the Hymns of Vespers and Orthros for Sundays found in the Paraklitiki (http://www.anastasis.org.uk/oktoich.htm).

An interesting article which discusses this theme from the perspective of the Scriptures is an article by Oscar Cullmann titled Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? You can find a PDF of this article at http://jbburnett.com/resources/cullmann_immort-res.pdf.  A Dogmatic perspective on this issue is dealt with by Metropolitan John Zizioulas in His book Communion and Otherness, particularly chapter 7 (http://www.amazon.com/Communion-Otherness-Further-Studies-Personhood/dp/0567031489).

Another trend that I have noticed is the polemic over what can be called the middle state of souls i.e. after death but before the Resurrection.  Some have dogmatized certain theologoumena, at times making these theological opinions their own individual cornerstone of Orthodoxy.  Others have condemned these theologoumena and have ended up dogmatizing their own view.  At any rate this emphasis on the state and happenings of the soul after death seems to me to detract from the great Paschal Mystery of the Church, the Resurrection from the dead.  A article written by the now Monk Maximos of Simonopetras when he was in the world and called Nicholas Constas does a great job at illustrating the divergence of thought and opinion in Patristic thought concerning the “middle state. (http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/DOP55/DP55ch06.pdf).