Mark Vernon—a self described “English writer, journalist, and author, [who] used to be a priest in the Church of England” and now is an agnostic—makes the following interesting point in a post on his blog.
Christianity teaches not resuscitation of the corpse, but the gift of a new body. (Hence, the resurrected Jesus has a body, but it’s not like yours or mine – able to appear and disappear, be present but not quite recognised etc.) And is not the desire for a new body one of the dominate narratives in our culture?
Rejuvenating creams, personal trainers, clothes design, body insurance, plastic surgery, virtual reality. I wonder what percentage of the economy is based on a secular, this-worldly version of resurrection?
Except that like all desires that are repressed, the original Christian notion returns in a distorted form, purged of the unpleasant talk of death. And unconsciously returning, the longing for a new body now persecutes more than liberates us – I suspect…
I had never made the connection between Christian and cultural resurrections this directly before, but I think he’s really onto something. Our culture—while no longer Christian, if indeed it ever was—is still looking for resurrection. And when we look to created things (rejuvenating creams, etc.) instead of the creator God for anything of ultimate, transcendent importance we end up with “a distorted form” … “that persecutes more than liberates.” Based on the permalink of his post it looks like his original post title may have been “Resurrection rises again to haunt us.” Describing the secular versions of resurrection as persecuting and haunting us is both dramatic and apt.
It’s an important insight, and all the more interesting coming from an agnostic, although, because of our religious differences, I imagine that he and I would apply this lesson differently. This Easter season, those of us who claim the name of Christian should focus on receiving and taking hold of the new life made possible in Christ and rejecting the empty promises of all the various secular resurrections.
Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan