Why Resurrection?: An Introduction to the Belief in the Afterlife in Judaism and Christianity

Few questions exert such a great fascination on human conscience as those related to the meaning of life history and death. The belief in the resurrection of the dead constitutes an answer to a real challenge: What is the meaning of life and history in the midst of a world in which evil injustice and ultimately death exist? Resurrection is an instrument serving a broader more encompassing reality: the Kingdom of God. Such a utopian Kingdom gathers the final response to the problem of theodicy and to the enigma of history. This book seeks to understand the idea of resurrection not only as a theological but also as a philosophical category (as expression of the collective aspirations of humanity) combining historical theological and philosophical analyses in dialogue with some of the principal streams of contemporary Western thought. Carlos Blancos synthetic gifts as a teacher-scholar are in full display in this monograph: an elegant distillation of a lecture course that straddles Biblical scholarship and philosophy of religion to expound on the foundational tenet of early Christian theology with ease intelligence and aplomb. --Luis Giron-Negron Harvard University Carlos Blanco asks difficult questions about life death and evil questions he pursues with great facility and care across centuries and disciplinary boundaries. It is a great pleasure reading this book to think alongside him and ask indeed Why Resurrection? --Charles M. Stang Assistant Professor of Early Christian Thought Harvard Divinity School Carlos Blanco is a visiting fellow at the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. He is the author of Mentes maravillosas que cambiaron la historia (2007).