City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)
In today's reading Augustine again affirms the Christian doctrine of the resurrection.
Firstly the miracles of the apostles are shown to demonstrate the power of God.
Then Augustine moves onto considering how the bodily resurrection will take place. Augustine asserts that:
(i) aborted humans will be bodily raised;
(ii) that everyone will have the body that they had, or would have had, in the prime of life (roughly 30 years of age, same as Christ's resurrected body);
(iii) everyone will be the gender they are now;
(iv) Christians will be perfect in beauty;
(v) it does not matter if the person's body has been grossly destroyed in this life (e.g. burnt, maimed).
Augustine then ends today's reading by affirming that relief for sins comes through Christ's grace alone.
Good to see Augustine show some humility in trying to describe precisely what our resurrection bodies will be like: 'But what will be the grace of that spiritual body, and the extent of that grace, is something of which we have had as yet no experience; and I am afraid that it would be rash to offer any description of it.'
Although we don't know all the details, what we do know is that our resurrection will be glorious!
Conclude Book 22 by reading Chapters 23 to 30.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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