Theological Considerations. 1009 



safe to predict that within a century the church will have done with 

 science, and every other modern and foreign accessor}', will resign the 

 pride of worldly knowledge, and be content with her ancient super- 

 natural faith and humble morality. Such- a position is unassailable. 

 All human knowledge, all scientific discovery is subject to, and even in- 

 vites investigation and criticism, and confirmation, correction, or rejec- 

 tion. A religion that submits itself to these conditions, descends from 

 the supernatural to the natural, ceases to be a divine theology, and be- 

 comes a human science. And no theology as a human science can 

 stand a day. 



The language of St. Paul in relation to the resurrection of the dead, in 1 Cor. 15 :44, is 

 not correctly translated in our version. He says, It (the body) is sown a " psychic body," 

 (soma psiichikon, not phusikon, as it would have been if he had meant to say physical or 

 natural body), and it is raised a pneumatic body (soma pneumatikori). The English ver- 

 sion in our bible conveys the idea that the physical body is sown, but another sort of 

 body, not physical, is raised. But the fact is, soma means the physical body, and the 

 text declares this body to be accompanied in life with a psuche or soul', it is a som&psu- 

 cJiikon, pyschic body, and as such it is buried or sown. In the grave the psuche is lost or 

 transformed into the pneuma or spirit, and when the time for the resurrection comes, the 

 soma is to be brought to life, and accompanied by this pneuma, it is to be raised a pneu- 

 matic body or "spiritual body." It is the same body, soma, that is " sown " and raised, 

 and this can mean nothing more nor less than the physical or obviously natural body. 

 A correct translation of the idea would be as follows- " It is sown a physical body with 

 a soul ; it is raised a physical body with a spirit." As if some objector might say that 

 the soul and spirit are the same, St. Paul immediately adds, " There is (such a thing as) 

 a psychic body (soma psuchikon) and there is a pneumatic body (soma pneumatikon). 

 For thus it is written he created the first man Adam, a living soul (psuchen zosan), the 

 last Adam a revivified spirit (pneuma zoopoioun)." 



The doctrine of the resurrection of the material body was generally 

 believed by the mass of Christians till within the last half century. 

 This doctrine was agreed to by the Unitarian materialist, Joseph 

 Priestly, in England. In the year 1777, he published "Disquisitions 

 relating to Matter and Spirit, " in which, on page 49, he saj^s: "Man, 

 according to this system (of materialism), is no more than we now see 

 of him. His being commences at the time of his conception, or per- 

 haps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, in being 

 in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and whenever the 

 system is dissolved, it continues in a state of dissolution till it shall 

 please the Almighty Being who called it into existence, to restore it to 

 life again. " l Priestly claimed that this doctrine was in accordance with 

 the teachings of the bible, which eve^where show ' ' death to be a state 

 of rest and insensibility. " The heresy of Priestly for which he suffered 

 the obloquy of the orthodox, consisted chiefly in his denial of the existence 

 of the soul as a separate person or entity. Why this should be considered 

 important by a church whose creed regarded the soul as essentially 

 f unctionless and inert without its body, it is difficult to see. In 1843, 

 Dr. Courtenay, English Bishop of Jamaica, published a book " On the 

 Future States " in which he says, "The death of the body will cause a 



1 Quoted by Huxley's Essay on Priestly. 



