ABSTRACT
While Athenagoras clearly evidences some biblical influence in his representation of post-death existence, particularly from 1 Corinthians 15, he is never explicit about this. The fact that he is writing, not particularly to a Christian audience but rather to a philosophical one, means that he has to base his arguments on religious understandings of creation and of the purpose of human being, its nature and divine providence, on contemporary philosophical commonplaces and on reason. He will only employ scripture, even when merely alluded to, as confirmation for a position already stated. Athenagoras accepts that while a human soul may continue to exist during the stage between death and resurrection, this existence will largely be an inactive, unconscious one. He then argues that at the resurrection of the person as both soul and body reunited for judgement, it must be the same body in every respect as existed during this present life, ‘exactly’ that which had died in all its constituent parts. This means that the notion of a transformation of the original body into a not-quite-identical resurrection body is not acceptable to Athenagoras as not providing the necessary continuity of personal identity and accountability.
