Ascension of an Immaterial Body: With Contributions from Nicholas of Cusa, Jonathan Edwards, and Gregory of Nyssa
In The Book of Acts: Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical Readings. Edited by Charles Raith II, 23–35. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019.
Abstract
This chapter is a response to Fr. John Behr’s chapter, in which I attempt to provide support for one of Fr. Behr’s main arguments, namely, that the Origenist spiritualizing tendency and the Irenaean incarnational approach are not opposed to one an other but share an eschatology that regards temporal and spatial realities as being in need of transformation so as to be fitted for the eschaton. I have long been convinced that it is not only Irenaeus who—against all gnosticizing of God’s good creation—had a high view of embodiment, but that all the required ingredients for a positive evaluation of the body are present in the Christian Platonist tradition of East and West.
