Resurrection Of The Body In Early Judaism And Early Christianity ― Doctrine, Community, and Self-Definition

Setzer (religious studies, Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York) writes on early Jewish/Christian relations and women in early Judaism and Christianity. Here she explores why belief in resurrection of some form or another was considered so crucial in the first and second centuries that many people who claimed authority declared that others did not belong because they did not believe in it. The answer, she argues, lies in the peculiar utility of resurrection of the dead as a symbol in the construction of community, and as part of a strategy for coping with the distance between what is and what ought to be. Just because people used the idea of resurrection for practical purposes, she says, does not mean they did not fully believe in it. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Claudia Setzer, Ph.D. (1990) in Religion, Columbia University, is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York. She is the author of Jewish Responses to Early Christians (Fortress, 1994) and writes on early Jewish/Christian relations and women in early Judaism and Christianity.