Compendium of Theology

 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

 CONTENTS

 CHAPTER 1

 CHAPTER 2

 CHAPTER 3

 CHAPTER 4

 CHAPTER 5

 CHAPTER 6

 CHAPTER 7

 CHAPTER 8

 CHAPTER 9

 CHAPTER 10

 CHAPTER 11

 CHAPTER 12

 CHAPTER 13

 CHAPTER 14

 CHAPTER 15

 CHAPTER 16

 CHAPTER 17

 CHAPTER 18

 CHAPTER 19

 CHAPTER 20

 CHAPTER 21

 CHAPTER 22

 CHAPTER 23

 CHAPTER 24

 CHAPTER 25

 CHAPTER 26

 CHAPTER 27

 CHAPTER 28

 CHAPTER 29

 CHAPTER 30

 CHAPTER 31

 CHAPTER 32

 CHAPTER 33

 CHAPTER 34

 CHAPTER 35

 CHAPTER 36

 CHAPTER 37

 CHAPTER 38

 CHAPTER 39

 CHAPTER 40

 CHAPTER 41

 CHAPTER 42

 CHAPTER 43

 CHAPTER 44

 CHAPTER 45

 CHAPTER 46

 CHAPTER 47

 CHAPTER 48

 CHAPTER 49

 CHAPTER 50

 CHAPTER 51

 CHAPTER 52

 CHAPTER 53

 CHAPTER 54

 CHAPTER 55

 CHAPTER 56

 CHAPTER 57

 CHAPTER 58

 CHAPTER 59

 CHAPTER 60

 CHAPTER 61

 CHAPTER 62

 CHAPTER 63

 CHAPTER 64

 CHAPTER 65

 CHAPTER 66

 CHAPTER 67

 CHAPTER 68

 CHAPTER 69

 CHAPTER 70

 CHAPTER 71

 CHAPTER 72

 CHAPTER 73

 CHAPTER 74

 CHAPTER 75

 CHAPTER 76

 CHAPTER 77

 CHAPTER 78

 CHAPTER 79

 CHAPTER 80

 CHAPTER 81

 CHAPTER 82

 CHAPTER 83

 CHAPTER 84

 CHAPTER 85

 CHAPTER 86

 CHAPTER 87

 CHAPTER 88

 CHAPTER 89

 CHAPTER 90

 CHAPTER 91

 CHAPTER 92

 CHAPTER 93

 CHAPTER 94

 CHAPTER 95

 CHAPTER 96

 CHAPTER 97

 CHAPTER 98

 CHAPTER 99

 CHAPTER 100

 CHAPTER 101

 CHAPTER 102

 CHAPTER 103

 CHAPTER 104

 CHAPTER 105

 CHAPTER 106

 CHAPTER 107

 CHAPTER 108

 CHAPTER 109

 CHAPTER 110

 CHAPTER 111

 CHAPTER 112

 CHAPTER 113

 CHAPTER 114

 CHAPTER 115

 CHAPTER 116

 CHAPTER 117

 CHAPTER 118

 CHAPTER 119

 CHAPTER 120

 CHAPTER 121

 CHAPTER 122

 CHAPTER 123

 CHAPTER 124

 CHAPTER 125

 CHAPTER 126

 CHAPTER 127

 CHAPTER 128

 CHAPTER 129

 CHAPTER 130

 CHAPTER 131

 CHAPTER 132

 CHAPTER 133

 CHAPTER 134

 CHAPTER 135

 CHAPTER 136

 CHAPTER 137

 CHAPTER 138

 CHAPTER 139

 CHAPTER 140

 CHAPTER 141

 CHAPTER 142

 CHAPTER 143

 CHAPTER 144

 CHAPTER 145

 CHAPTER 146

 CHAPTER 147

 CHAPTER 148

 CHAPTER 149

 CHAPTER 150

 CHAPTER 151

 CHAPTER 152

 CHAPTER 153

 CHAPTER 154

 CHAPTER 155

 CHAPTER 156

 CHAPTER 157

 CHAPTER 158

 CHAPTER 159

 CHAPTER 160

 CHAPTER 161

 CHAPTER 162

 CHAPTER 163

 CHAPTER 164

 CHAPTER 165

 CHAPTER 166

 CHAPTER 167

 CHAPTER 168

 CHAPTER 169

 CHAPTER 170

 CHAPTER 171

 CHAPTER 172

 CHAPTER 173

 CHAPTER 174

 CHAPTER 175

 CHAPTER 176

 CHAPTER 177

 CHAPTER 178

 CHAPTER 179

 CHAPTER 180

 CHAPTER 181

 CHAPTER 182

 CHAPTER 183

 CHAPTER 184

 CHAPTER 185

 CHAPTER 186

 CHAPTER 187

 CHAPTER 188

 CHAPTER 189

 CHAPTER 190

 CHAPTER 191

 CHAPTER 192

 CHAPTER 193

 CHAPTER 194

 CHAPTER 195

 CHAPTER 196

 CHAPTER 197

 CHAPTER 198

 CHAPTER 199

 CHAPTER 200

 CHAPTER 201

 CHAPTER 202

 CHAPTER 203

 CHAPTER 204

 CHAPTER 205

 CHAPTER 206

 CHAPTER 207

 CHAPTER 208

 CHAPTER 209

 CHAPTER 210

 CHAPTER 211

 CHAPTER 212

 CHAPTER 213

 CHAPTER 214

 CHAPTER 215

 CHAPTER 216

 CHAPTER 217

 CHAPTER 218

 CHAPTER 219

 CHAPTER 220

 CHAPTER 221

 CHAPTER 222

 CHAPTER 223

 CHAPTER 224

 CHAPTER 225

 CHAPTER 226

 CHAPTER 227

 CHAPTER 228

 CHAPTER 229

 CHAPTER 230

 CHAPTER 231

 CHAPTER 232

 CHAPTER 233

 CHAPTER 234

 CHAPTER 235

 CHAPTER 236

 CHAPTER 237

 CHAPTER 238

 CHAPTER 239

 CHAPTER 240

 CHAPTER 241

 CHAPTER 242

 CHAPTER 243

 CHAPTER 244

 CHAPTER 245

 CHAPTER 246

 Part Two

 CHAPTER 1

 CHAPTER 2

 CHAPTER 3

 CHAPTER 4

 CHAPTER 5

 CHAPTER 6

 CHAPTER 7

 CHAPTER 8

 CHAPTER 9

 CHAPTER 10

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 155

RESURRECTION TO NEW LIFE

Although men will rise as the same individuals, they will not have the same kind of life as before. Now their life is corruptible; then it will be incorruptible. If nature aims at perpetual existence in the generation of man, much more so does God in the restoration of man. Nature's tendency toward never-ending existence comes from an impulse implanted by God. The perpetual existence of the species is not in question in the restoration of risen man, for this could be procured by repeated generation. Therefore what is intended is the perpetual existence of the individual. Accordingly risen men will live forever.

             Besides, if men once risen were to die, the souls separated from their bodies would not remain forever deprived of the body, for this would be against the nature of the soul, as we said above. Therefore they would have to rise again; and the same thing would happen if they were to die again after the second resurrection. Thus death and life would revolve around each man in cycles of infinite succession; which seems futile. Surely a halt is better called at the initial stage, so that men might rise to immortal life at the first resurrection.

             However, the conquest of mortality will not induce any diversity either in species or in number. The idea of mortality contains nothing that could make it a specific difference of man, since it signifies no more than a passion. It is used to serve as a specific difference of man in the sense that the nature of man is designated by calling him mortal, to bring out the fact that he is composed of contrary elements, just as his proper form is designated by the predicate "rational"; material things cannot be defined without including matter. However, mortality is not overcome by taking away man's proper matter. For the soul will not resume a celestial or ethereal body, as was mentioned above; it will resume a human body made up of contrary elements. Incorruptibility will come as an effect of divine power, whereby the soul will gain dominion over the body to the point that the body cannot corrupt. For a thing continues in being as long as form has dominion over matter.