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[ 56 ] the rise and fall of soul and self
Initially some Christian intellectuals resisted the lure of trying to rationalize
Christianity by using Greek philosophy. But the project was inevitable. Christian
Scripture expressed beliefs but not a philosophy. Educated converts to Christianity could
not help but try to understand their newly acquired beliefs, and this meant trying to
understand them philosophically. In addition, it was the apologists’ selfappointed job
to defend Christianity from pagan critics and to stamp out various Christian
“heresies.” Philosophy was needed for these tasks.
The apologists of the second century and subsequent church fathers (collec-
tively called patristic theologians) faced the twin challenges, first, of deciding
what Christian dogma should be and, then, of deciding what it should mean.
For the most part, Scripture dictated what dogma should be. But not always.
Even in such central concerns as whether each human is endowed by his or her
Creator with an immortal soul, Scripture is ambiguous. In any case, external
help was needed in figuring out what Scripture meant. Greek philosophy, and
its Roman and Jewish derivatives, were the only help available. Thus, through-
out the Patristic Period,
and as we shall see even into the Middle Ages, pagan
philosophy played a seminal role in the formulation of what from that time until
our own has remained basic Christian doctrine.
The Resurrection
The discussion among the church fathers of the resurrection of people is the real
beginning of the philosophical debate over personal identity. Although the church
fathers drew upon pagan theories, there was in classical Greek and Roman phi-
losophy no continuous tradition of discussion of the problem of personal identity.
The issue was not a central one for pagan philosophers. It was for the church
fathers. Christian dogma was individualistic in a way that pagan philosophy
never was. It was critical to early Christian thinkers, and subsequently to all
Christian thinkers, both that humans survive their bodily deaths
as individuals
and that
as individuals they subsequently be held accountable for their earthly
lives. Arguably, the promulgation and ultimate widespread acceptance of these
doctrines contributed importantly to the emergence of Western individualism.
According to St. Paul, Christ, through His Resurrection, had defeated death not
only for himself but for everyone, or at least for everyone who heard his message
and believed. Not ever ending one’s life as the same person one is now was the
prize. Spending eternity either in heaven or in hell hung in the balance.
According to Christian Scripture, not only do people survive their bodily
deaths, but they survive them in a bodily way. Many pagans found it difficult to
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