Living Resurrected Lives

Book excerpt: Christ's bodily resurrection is the foundation of Christian faith; at least, it is supposed to be. But how often do we really consider what that means? Living Resurrected Lives explores what it would take for Christians to understand and believe so clearly in resurrection--both Christ's glorification and the promise of our own--that our lives would be radically transformed by that faith right now. We take a daringly integrated approach, balancing careful consideration of sacred Scripture with attention to history, theology, and personal contemplative practice. We offer arguments to re-establish a firm bedrock for belief in the Gospel accounts, suggest a new theological perspective that integrates scientific insights into quantum uncertainty with reflections on the malleable nature of identity, and provide heart-stirring guided meditations for daily practice. We elucidate St. Paul's teachings on the transformation of the body and grapple with age-old conundrums about decaying corpses and the continuity of personal identity: What dies? What lives on? We revisit early Christian intuitions about the sublime qualities of the glorified body and explore how we might cultivate such qualities through our own individual practice. Thus we propose an embodied resurrection mysticism that can permeate every moment of our lives.