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resurrected self
[ 65 ]
After sliding over the word “another,” as if it meant the same, Methodius con-
cludes, “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Cannot I do to you as
this potter, O house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter are ye in my
hands.’ ”
14
Yet, elsewhere, and especially in his critique of Origen, Methodius seems to be
quite sensitive to the difference between same and similar:
If any bronze-artist has destroyed an image made of bronze and wishes to make
another out of gold in place of the destroyed one . . . anyone would say that it could be
similar to the first one, but not that the first image had itself been renewed. Therefore,
when a spiritual body is resurrected in the old body’s place, so, according to [Origen’s]
opinion, neither is the form nor the element resurrected; it is not the deceased body,
but another similar to it.
15
In view of Methodius’ sometimes being sensitive and sometimes not to the dis-
tinction between same and similar, it is difficult to be sure what his view actually
was. It is also curious that he is so sure that Origen’s opinion of his example
would be that neither the “form” nor the “element” would be resurrected.
Although Origen is not as clear about form as he might have been, it would
seem that his view of Methodius’ example would be that the form would be
resurrected.
Origen’s ideas had a more sympathetic treatment in the thought of Gregory of
Nyssa (335?-395), the brother of Basil of Caesarea; these two, along with Basil’s
best friend Gregory of Nazianzus, are known collectively as the Cappadocian
Fathers. They played an important role in settling the controversy over the
Trinity at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and have the status in the East-
ern Church that Augustine acquired within the Western. In
On the Soul and
the Resurrection, which is modeled on a Platonic dialogue, Gregory attempted
to meet Methodius’ objections to Origen, as well as to express his own view. As
the dialogue opens, Gregory, grief stricken over the death of his older brother
Basil, goes to his sister Macrina for consolation, only to learn that she too has
contracted a fatal illness.
Macrina is unperturbed, both by Basil’s death and by
her own impending death. In the dialogue, she plays the role of the sage, con-
soling Gregory for what is about to be his double loss. Gregory plays the role of
her student.
Particularly interesting is what this dialogue reveals about which objections
to Origin’s theories of the soul and the resurrection Gregory thinks that he has to
answer. His concerns are revealed in the structure of the dialogue itself, which
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