On the Soul and the Resurrection.
With a heart still fermenting with my pain, I asked— How can that ever be practised by mankind? There is such an instinctive and deep-seated abhorrenc
Why, what is the especial pain you feel, asked the Teacher, in the mere necessity itself of dying? This common talk of unthinking persons is no suffic
What! is there no occasion for grieving, I replied to her, when we see one who so lately lived and spoke becoming all of a sudden lifeless and motionl
Whilst I was thus enlarging on the subject, the Teacher signed to me with her hand , and said: Surely what alarms and disturbs your mind is not the th
I answered rather audaciously, and without due consideration of what I said, for my passionate grief had not yet given me back my judgment. In fact, I
Away, she cried, with that pagan nonsense! For therein the inventor of lies fabricates false theories only to harm the Truth. Observe this, and nothin
And pray how, I asked, are we to get a firm and unmovable belief in the soul’s continuance? I, too, am sensible of the fact that human life will be be
Well, replied the Teacher, we must seek where we may get a beginning for our discussion upon this point and if you please, let the defence of the opp
When she made this request, and I had deprecated the suspicion that I was making the objections in real earnest, instead of only wishing to get a firm
Would not the defenders of the opposite belief say this: that the body, being composite, must necessarily be resolved into that of which it is compose
The Teacher sighed gently at these words of mine, and then said Maybe these were the objections, or such as these, that the Stoics and Epicureans col
That is the very point, I said, upon which our adversaries cannot fail to have doubts viz. that all things depend on God and are encompassed by Him,
It would be more fitting, she cried, to be silent about such doubts, and not to deign to make any answer to such foolish and wicked propositions for
And pray how, I asked, does this belief in the existence of God prove along with it the existence of the human soul? For God, surely, is not the same
She replied: It has been said by wise men that man is a little world in himself and contains all the elements which go to complete the universe. If th
I rejoined, Nay, it may be very possible to infer a wisdom transcending the universe from the skilful and artistic designs observable in this harmoniz
Most certainly, the Virgin replied, the soul herself, to those who wish to follow the wise proverb and know themselves, is a competent instructress o
What then, I asked, is the soul? Perhaps there may be some possible means of delineating its nature so that we may have some comprehension of this su
Its definition, the Teacher replied, has been attempted in different ways by different writers, each according to his own bent but the following is o
But what, I asked, if, insisting on the great differences which, in spite of a certain quality of matter shared alike by all elements in their visible
Your instance, she replied, and your reasoning upon it, though belonging to the counter-argument, may both of them be made allies of our statement, an
Why, how can you say that?
Because, you see, so to understand, manipulate, and dispose the soulless matter, that the art which is stored away in such mechanisms becomes almost l
That the thing perceived, I replied, is not the same as the thing not perceived, I grant but I do not discover any answer to our question in such a s
We do learn, she replied, much about many things by this very same method, inasmuch as, in the very act of saying a thing is “not so and so,” we by im
Here I interrupted her discourse: If you leave all these out of the account I do not see how you can possibly avoid cancelling along with them the ver
Shame on such absurdity! said she, indignantly interrupting. A fine conclusion this narrow-minded, grovelling view of the world brings us to! If all t
Well, then, I retorted, we only exchange one paradox for another by arguing in this way for our reason will be reduced to the conclusion that the Dei
Say not so, she replied to talk so also is blasphemous. Rather, as the Scripture tells you, say that the one is like the other. For that which is “ma
That those atoms, I rejoined, should unite and again be separated, and that this constitutes the formation and dissolution of the body, no one would d
But the intelligent and undimensional, she replied, is neither contracted nor diffused (contraction and diffusion being a property of body only) but
Upon this I recurred to the definition which she had previously given of the soul, and I said that to my thinking her definition had not indicated dis
You are quite justified, she replied, in raising this question, and it has ere this been discussed by many elsewhere namely, what we are to think of
What then, I asked the Teacher, are we to think about this? For I cannot yet see how we can fitly repudiate faculties which are actually within us.
You see, she replied, there is a battle of the reason with them and a struggle to rid the soul of them and there are men in whom this struggle has en
And yet, I rejoined to the virgin, we see no slight help afforded for improvement to the virtuous from all these conditions. Daniel’s desire was his g
I think, replied the Teacher, that I am myself responsible for this confusion arising from different accounts of the matter for I did not state it as
Much moved by these words, I said: To any one who reflects indeed, your exposition, advancing as it does in this consecutive manner, though plain and
And who, she replied, could deny that truth is to be found only in that upon which the seal of Scriptural testimony is set? So, if it is necessary tha
She ceased after this statement and allowed the discussion a short interval, in which I reviewed mentally all that had been said and reverting to tha
Clearly, replied the Teacher, you have not quite attended to the argument. In speaking of the soul’s migration from the seen to the unseen, I thought
And how, then, I asked, is it that some think that by the underworld is meant an actual place, and that it harbours within itself
Well, replied the Teacher, our doctrine will be in no ways injured by such a supposition. For if it is true, what you say above
But what, I asked, if your opponent should shield himself behind the Apostle, where he says that every reasoning creature, in the restitution of all t
We shall stand by our doctrine, answered the Teacher, even if we should hear them adducing these words. For the existence of the soul (after death) we
But if some were to ask the meaning of the Apostle in this utterance, what is one to say? Would you remove all signification of place from the passage
I do not think, she replied, that the divine Apostle divided the intellectual world into localities, when he named part as in heaven, part as on earth
When she had finished, I hesitated a moment, and then said: I am not yet satisfied about the thing which we have been inquiring into after all that h
She waited a moment and then said: Give me leave to invent a fanciful simile in order to illustrate the matter before us: even though that which I sup
You seem, I interrupted, in this passing remark to have made an excellent defence of the faith in the Resurrection. By it, I think, the opponents of t
That is very true, the Teacher replied. For we may hear these opponents urging the following difficulty. “The atoms are resolved, like to like, into t
Then to meet such an objection, I rejoined, the above opinion about the soul will, as I said, avail namely, that she remains after dissolution in tho
The following illustration also, the Teacher went on, might be very properly added to those already brought forward, to show that the soul has not nee
I applauded this as well devised to bring out the natural features of the case before us and I said: It is very well to speak like this and to believ
The Teacher answered: The expressions of that narrative of the Word are certainly material but still many hints are interspersed in it to rouse the s
What then, I asked, are the fire and the gulf and the other features in the picture? Are they not that which they are said to be?
I think, she replied, that the Gospel signifies by means of each of them certain doctrines with regard to our question of the soul. For when the patri
What then, I asked, is the doctrine here?
Why, seeing that Lazarus’ soul is occupied with his present blessings and turns round to look at nothing that he has left, while the rich man is still
Then, after a moment’s reflection on the meaning of these latter words, I said: I think that a contradiction now arises between what you have said and
How so? she asked.
Why, when every unreasoning instinct is quenched within us after our purgation, this principle of desire will not exist any more than the other princi
To that objection, she replied, we answer this. The speculative and critical faculty is the property of the soul’s godlike part for it is by these th
Then it seems, I said, that it is not punishment chiefly and principally that the Deity, as Judge, afflicts sinners with but He operates, as your arg
That, said the Teacher, is my meaning and also that the agony will be measured by the amount of evil there is in each individual. For it would not be
But, said I, what help can one find in this devout hope, when one considers the greatness of the evil in undergoing torture even for a single year an
Why , either we must plan to keep the soul absolutely untouched and free from any stain of evil or, if our passionate nature makes that quite impossi
What then, I asked, are we to say to those whose hearts fail at these calamities ?
We will say to them, replied the Teacher, this. “It is foolish, good people, for you to fret and complain of the chain of this fixed sequence of life’
But it somehow seems to me now, I said, that the doctrine of the Resurrection necessarily comes on for our discussion a doctrine which I think is eve
As for the thinkers, the Teacher went on, outside our own system of thought, they have, with all their diverse ways of looking at things, one in one p
The Teacher finished her exposition and to the many persons sitting by her bedside the whole discussion seemed now to have arrived at a fitting concl
But, said she, which of these points has been left unnoticed in what has been said?
Why, the actual doctrine of the Resurrection, I replied.
And yet, she answered, much in our long and detailed discussion pointed to that.
Then are you not aware, I insisted, of all the objections, a very swarm of them, which our antagonists bring against us in connection with that hope o
She, however, replied, First, I think, we must briefly run over the scattered proclamations of this doctrine in Holy Scripture they shall give the fi
But that, said I, was not the point in question. Most of your hearers will assent to the fact that there will some day be a Resurrection, and that man
When I had finished, the Teacher thus replied, You have attacked the doctrines connected with the Resurrection with some spirit, in the way of rhetori
We will say to them, replied the Teacher, this. “It is foolish, good people, for you to fret and complain of the chain of this fixed sequence of life’s realities; you do not know the goal towards which each single dispensation of the universe is moving. You do not know that all things have to be assimilated to the Divine Nature in accordance with the artistic plan of their author, in a certain regularity and order. Indeed, it was for this that intelligent beings came into existence; namely, that the riches of the Divine blessings should not lie idle. The All-creating Wisdom fashioned these souls, these receptacles with free wills, as vessels as it were, for this very purpose, that there should be some capacities able to receive His blessings and become continually larger with the inpouring of the stream. Such are the wonders113 Such are the wonders. There is here, Denys (De la Philosophie d’Origène, p. 484) remarks, a great difference between Gregory and Origen. Both speak of an “eternal sabbath,” which will end the circle of our destinies. But Origen, after all the progress and peregrinations of the soul, which he loves to describe, establishes “the reasoning nature” at last in an unchangeable quiet and repose; while Gregory sets before the soul an endless career of perfections and ever increasing happiness. This is owing to their different conceptions of the Deity. Origen cannot understand how He can know Himself or be accessible to our thought, if He is Infinite: Gregory on the contrary conceives Him as Infinite, as beyond all real or imaginable boundaries, πασῆς περιγραφῆς ἐκτός (Orat. Cat. viii. 65); this is the modern, rather than the Greek view. In the following description of the life eternal Gregory hardly merits the censure of Ritter that he “introduces absurdity” into it. that the participation in the Divine blessings works: it makes him into whom they come larger and more capacious; from his capacity to receive it gets for the receiver an actual increase in bulk as well, and he never stops enlarging. The fountain of blessings wells up unceasingly, and the partaker’s nature, finding nothing superfluous and without a use in that which it receives, makes the whole influx an enlargement of its own proportions, and becomes at once more wishful to imbibe the nobler nourishment and more capable of containing it; each grows along with each, both the capacity which is nursed in such abundance of blessings and so grows greater, and the nurturing supply which comes on in a flood answering to the growth of those increasing powers. It is likely, therefore, that this bulk will mount to such a magnitude as114 such a magnitude as. Reading, ἐφ᾽ ὃ, with Schmidt. The “limit” is the present body, which must be laid aside in order to cease to be a hindrance to such a growth. Krabinger reads ἐφ ὧν on the authority of six Codd., and translates “ii in quibus nullus terminus interrumpit incrementum.” But τοσοῦτον can answer to nothing before, and manifestly refers to the relative clause. there is no limit to check, so that we should not grow into it. With such a prospect before us, are you angry that our nature is advancing to its goal along the path appointed for us? Why, our career cannot be run thither-ward, except that which weighs us down, I mean this encumbering load of earthiness, be shaken off the soul; nor can we be domiciled in Purity with the corresponding part of our nature, unless we have cleansed ourselves by a better training from the habit of affection which we have contracted in life towards this earthiness. But if there be in you any clinging to this body115 Macrina may be here alluding to Gregory’s brotherly affection for her., and the being unlocked from this darling thing give you pain, let not this, either, make you despair. You will behold this bodily envelopment, which is now dissolved in death, woven again out of the same atoms, not indeed into this organization with its gross and heavy texture, but with its threads worked up into something more subtle and ethereal, so that you will not only have near you that which you love, but it will be restored to you with a brighter and more entrancing beauty116 But on high A record lives of thine identity! Thou shalt not lose one charm of lip or eye; The hues and liquid lights shall wait for thee, And the fair tissues, whereso’er they be! Daughter of heaven! our grieving hearts repose On the dear thought that we once more shall see Thy beauty—like Himself our Master rose. C. Tennyson Turner.—Anastasis..”
_Μ. Εἴπωμεν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, φησὶν ἡ διδάσκαλος, ὅτι Μάτην, ὦ οὗτοι, δυσανασχετεῖτε καὶ δυσχεραίνετε τῷ εἱρμῷ τῆς ἀναγκαίας πραγμάτων ἀκολουθίας, ἀγνοοῦντες πρὸς ὅντινα σκοπὸν τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐν τῷ παντὶ οἰκονομούμενα φέρεται, ὅτι πάντα χρὴ τάξει τινὶ καὶ ἀκολουθίᾳ κατὰ τὴν τεχνικὴν τοῦ καθηγεμόνος σοφίαν τῇ θείᾳ προσοικειωθῆναι φύσει. Τούτου γὰρ ἕνεκεν ἡ λογικὴ φύσις ἦλθεν εἰς γένεσιν, ὡς τὸν πλοῦτον τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν μὴ ἀργὸν εἶναι: ἀλλ' οἷον ἀγγεῖά τινα προαιρετικὰ τῶν ψυχῶν δοχεῖα, παρὰ τῆς τὸ πᾶν συστησαμένης σοφίας κατεσκάσθη, ἐφ' ᾧτε εἶναί τι χώρημα δεκτικὸν ἀγαθῶν, τὸ ἀεὶ τῇ προσθήκῃ τοῦ εἰσχεομένου μεῖζον γινόμενον.
Τοιαύτῃ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ θείου ἀγαθοῦ μετουσία, ὥστε μείζονα καὶ δεκτικώτερον ποιεῖν τὸν ἐν ᾧ γίνεται, ἐκ δυνάμεως καὶ μεγέθους προσθήκην ἀναλαμβανομένη τῷ δεχομένῳ, ὡς ἂν αὔξεσθαι τὸν τρεφόμενον, καὶ μὴ λήγειν ποτὲ τῆς αὐξήσεως. Τῆς γὰρ πηγῆς τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνέκλειπτα πηγαζούσης, ἡ τοῦ μετέχοντος φύσις, διὰ τὸ μηδὲν τοῦ λαμβανομένου περιττωματικόν τε εἶναι καὶ ἄχρηστον, ὅλον τὸ εἰσρέον προσθήκην τοῦ ἰδίου ποιουμένου μεγέθους, ἑλκτικωτέρα τε ἅμα τοῦ κρείττονος, καὶ πολυχωρητοτέρα γίνεται, ἀμφοτέρων ἀλλήλοις συνεπιδιδόντων, τῆς τε τρεφομένης δυνάμεως ἐν τῇ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀφθονίᾳ πρὸς τὸ μεῖζον ἐπιδιδούσης, καὶ τῆς τρεφούσης χορηγίας, τῇ τῶν αὐξανομένων ἐπιδόσει συμπλημμυρούσης. Ἔστιν οὖν εἰκὸς εἰς τοιοῦτον ἀναβήσεσθαι μέγεθος, ἐφ' ὃν ὅρος οὐδεὶς ἐπικόπτει τὴν αὔξησιν. Εἶτα τοιούτων ἡμῖν προκειμένων, χαλεπαίνετε διὰ τῆς τεταγμένης ἡμῖν ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον σκοπὸν προϊούσης τῆς φύσεως; Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἄλλως ἐπέκεινα γενέσθαι τὸν δρόμον ἡμῖν, μὴ τοῦ βαροῦντος ἡμᾶς, τοῦ ἐμβριθοῦς λέγω τούτου καὶ γεώδους φορτίου, τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν ἀποσεισθέντος, τῆς τε πρὸς αὐτὸ συμπαθείας, ἣν ἐν τῷδε τῷ βίῳ ἐσχήκαμεν, διὰ κρείττονος ἐπιμελείας ἐγκαθαρθέντας, ἐν τῷ καθαρῷ δυνηθῆναι προσοικειωθῆναι τὸ ὅμοιον. Εἰ δέ σοί τις καὶ πρὸς τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο σχέσις ἐστὶ, καὶ λυπεῖ σε ἡ τοῦ ἠγαπημένου διάζευξις, μηδὲ τοῦτό σοι ἀπ' ἐλπίδος ἔσται. Ὄψει γὰρ τοῦτο τὸ σωματικὸν περιβόλαιον τὸν νῦν διαλυθὲν τῷ θανάτῳ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν πάλιν ἐξυφαινόμενον, οὐ κατὰ τὴν παχυμερῆ ταύτην καὶ βαρεῖαν κατασκευὴν, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ λεπτότερόν τε καὶ ἀερῶδες μετακλωσθέντος τοῦ νήματος, ὥστε σοι καὶ παρεῖναι τὸ ἀγαπώμενον, καὶ ἐν ἀμείνονι καὶ ἐρασμιωτέρῳ κάλλει πάλιν ἀποκαθίστασθαι.
