Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
signified, for again we have the same demonstrative pronoun. For the soul can be said to be mortal as well as corruptible on account of its moral vices. The death of the soul is to depart from God (cp. Ecclesiasticus 10:12). This first sin committed in paradise is related in the sacred books.
24. The body will rise again according to the Christian faith which is infallible. He who finds this incredible is fixing his attention on what the flesh is like now, and is not considering what it will be like hereafter. When it has been changed into an angelic thing, there will be no longer flesh and blood, but simply body. Speaking of flesh the apostle says: "There is one flesh of beasts, another of birds, another of fishes and serpents. There are also bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial." Notice he does not say celestial flesh, but celestial and terrestrial bodies (I Cor.
15:40). All flesh is corporeal, but every body is not flesh. Among terrestrial things wood is a corporeal thing but is not flesh, while the body of man and beast is also flesh. Among celestial things there is no flesh, but simple and shining bodies, which the apostle calls spiritual; but some call them ethereal. So he does not deny the resurrection of the flesh when he says: 'Tlesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God," but declares what flesh and blood are to become. If any man does not believe that common flesh can be changed into a nature of this sort, he is to be led on to faith by gradual steps. If you ask him whether earth can be changed into water, that will not seem to him incredible because there is no great distance between these two elements. Again if you ask whether water can be changed into air, he will agree that that is not absurd because these two elements are close neighbours. Let him next be asked about air, whether it can be transformed into an ethereal body, and again the close relation of the two elements will make it plausible. Now when he has admitted the possibility that earth can be transmuted by these stages into ethereal body, why should it not be possible directly when God so wills it, who once made it possible for a human body to walk upon the waters? Why should he not believe that it can happen without these intermediate steps, "in the twinkling of an eye," as it is written
(I Cor. 15:52); just as smoke is often turned into flame with marvellous speed? Our flesh is no doubt derived from the earth. Philosophical arguments in proof of the assertion that no earthly object can be in heaven are often urged against faith in the resurrection of the flesh; and yet the philosophers admit that any body can be changed and transformed into any other.