A Theology of Everything

Part 11, "When I Have Arrived There, I Will be a Human Being"

Having discussed soteriology in the last few posts, I want to turn to a discussion of final things in the last three posts of this series. 

In this post we'll discuss how the creature approaches death.

Perhaps this post isn't necessary for this series as it isn't doing a lot of heavy theological lifting. But I want to insert it here to share a reflection about what it means to be "born again" in the Spirit while still moving toward death. That is to say, following the last post, I've been filled with Christ's Spirit, the same Spirit that raised him from the dead, yet I will still experience physical decline and, eventually, death. Given this, how does this "theology of everything" explain this mixed picture, our victory over death while still experiencing death?

When Ignatius of Antioch journeyed to Rome to face his martyrdom, he wrote to the church consoling them about what was about to happen:

Birth-pangs are upon me. Allow me, my brethren; hinder me not from living, do not wish me to die...Allow me to receive the pure light; when I shall have arrived there, I will be a human being.

All has been reversed here. Death has become a birth. Dying is living, and living is dying. Developmentally, here in this life, we are not yet human beings. But after our death, we will grow up and become fully human. 

When the creature consents to being born again, its death becomes the means of its sanctification and maturation. Death is no longer an end, but a means. Our dying becomes a tool. As Maximus the Confessor says, 

The baptized acquires the use of death to condemn sin, which in turn mystically leads that person to divine and unending life. Such will ensue if indeed the saints, for the sake of truth and righteousness, have virtuously finished the course of this life with its many sufferings, liberating their nature within themselves from death as a condemnation of sin and, like Christ, the captain of our salvation, turned death from a weapon to destroy human nature into a weapon to destroy sin.

Note well the phrase: "the use of death." For the "born again," due to our pneumatic incorruptibility, united as we are to the Spirit, death can no longer destroy our human nature. But our dying can be used as a weapon to destroy the sin in our lives. Death becomes a resource for my sanctification. 

Life is learning to die in order to be born again. The creature participates in using their death to become a human being. To be clear, this isn't a stoical acceptance of death as the cessation and end of life, a materialistic, nihilistic vision of "dying well." We are describing death as birth-pangs, as moving toward mystical union with God. Again, death is being used as a tool. The soul is perfected and purified as it moves through this world of contingency, full of suffering and tribulation. The soul experiences this life as a birthing, as labor pains in a process of sanctification. 

We die to arrive as human beings.