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Augustine’s Theology of the Resurrection by Augustine M. Reisenauer (review)

2024; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/earl.2024.a929881

1086-3184

Thomas D. McGlothlin,

Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

Reviewed by: Augustine's Theology of the Resurrection by Augustine M. Reisenauer Thomas D. McGlothlin Augustine M. Reisenauer Augustine's Theology of the Resurrection Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023 Pp. xvi + 275. $110.00. Augustine never dedicated a treatise to resurrection, but Augustine M. Reisenauer argues that this absence reveals "the ubiquitous centrality of the resurrection in Augustine's theology" (2). One way to pursue such a far-reaching thesis would be to define "resurrection" so broadly that it appears everywhere. A key feature of this book, however, is its attention to how the specific referents of "resurrection" in Augustine are both diverse and interrelated, finding their center in the resurrection of Christ. Most basically, to resurrect is to return from death to life [End Page 307] (De Trinitate 8.5.8). This simple definition raises three framing questions: What can die? What does it mean to "return"? What is true "life"? Reisenauer divides Augustine's development into two periods, before and after Contra Faustum Manicheum (400/402 c.e.). In the Cassiciacum dialogues, Augustine referenced resurrection without specifying its referent (soul? body? both?) (Chapter One). He then clarified that resurrection applies to both the immortal soul, which can die morally, and the body, which can participate in the happy life through repristination to Edenic stability (Chapter Two). After subsequently recognizing that repristination is insufficient to account for the resurrected Christ's ascension into heaven, Augustine developed an "experimental theory" (58) that the resurrection will substantially transform the human flesh (of the saved) into angelic bodies, with the continuity of personhood guaranteed not by material continuity but rather by God (Chapter Three). Although Augustine would later abandon both Edenic repristination and angelic transmutation, Reisenauer emphasizes that these early attempts to make sense of resurrection were driven by a focus on the resurrected Christ. C. Faust. marks the transition to Augustine's mature position. There, focusing on the Gospels' accounts of Christ's resurrected flesh, Augustine shifted from resurrection as a substantial, angelic transmutation to resurrection as a reconstitution of the flesh (for all humans) and a positive, qualitative transformation of that flesh (for the saints) (Chapter Four). Augustine also believed this resurrected flesh of Christ could be encountered and recognized by the faithful through the ecclesial practices of preaching, the sacraments, and works of mercy (Chapter Five). Augustine's mature answers to the three framing questions were thus set: What can die? Both the soul (morally) and the body (physically). What does it mean to "return"? To be reconstituted in full integrity and flourishing, even beyond the Edenic state. What is true "life"? Recognizing and loving the resurrected Christ and thereby enjoying the beatific life in God. There is therefore both a first resurrection of the soul and a second resurrection of the body. Together, Reisenauer calls these the "integral resurrection." Reisenauer treats this second period, beginning with C. Faust., topically rather than chronologically. Augustine's account in Trin. 4 of Christ's resurrected flesh as the sacrament of the resurrection of the soul and exemplar of that of the body establishes the deep connection of both to the resurrection of Christ (Chapter Six). The final six chapters then elucidate the contours and implications of the resurrections of the soul and body. Apart from a reading of Confessiones as an account of Augustine's own spiritual resurrection (Chapter Eight), these chapters proceed synthetically. Consistently reading with the grain of Augustine, Reisenauer weaves together data from a wide range of texts to arrive at a synthetic presentation of Augustine's theology of the integral resurrection of body and soul as a gift received from the merciful God of resurrection fully and with gratitude by the humble saints and partially and with damning resistance by the proud damned. Early Christian debates about resurrection frequently focused on questions of continuity within transformation. The same could be said of Reisenauer's treatment of Augustine. Despite Augustine's shifting answers to specific questions, Reisenauer is keen to establish that Augustine, from his earliest texts, developed [End Page 308] those answers within the received faith of the catholic church through engagement with scripture. By this, Reisenauer means that Augustine's project was to synthesize and articulate...