I believe in the resurrection of the body (reprise)

The discussion wasn't exactly the same this year as it was last year, but there was the familiar feeling of striving against the wind. This time, though, there was much more resistance to the very idea that Christianity teaches resurrection of the body, as opposed to what some of my self-identified evangelical students called resurrection of the body, which is actually a kind of reincarnation. One such student actually maintained that the resurrected body of Jesus was in fact not the same body that had died on the cross -- not merely that the body had undergone changes, mind you, but that it was actually a brand-new body.

As I always say to my students in these contexts, I'm not asking you to believe the doctrine -- it takes a lot of believing -- but I am asking you to believe that that's what the doctrine is.

I had a similar experience teaching Augustine's De trinitate last semester. As I laid out the various heresies that Augustine was trying to avoid and the various truths that he was trying to preserve, I found that my students were simply incredulous. They refused to accept that the doctrine was what I was telling them it was. (In particular, they refused to accept that modalism is a heresy, rather than the actual orthodox doctrine.) That experience led me to suggest the idea of an Introduction to Christianity course. To my surprise, my colleagues in Religious Studies all thought that was a great idea. It seems they've all had similar experiences.