‘What’s on the other side?’ The resurrection revived: A critical enquiry

Abstract

In a fear-filled world people are asking – perhaps more than ever – what happens after we die. This popular fascination with the end, with death and with what (if anything) lies beyond it has also influenced the theme and the direction of academic work in the theological field. For this reason, an informed analysis of the resurrection debate has become necessary – a process of analysing the different strata of understanding as they relate to current resurrection research. An effort is made to give consideration to gender and power, to birth and burial, to money and food in order to be able to situate the debates being studied. The current study asks: What if we see things differently or ask a different set of questions? In order for this to be possible, we need to develop an ethics of interpretation – not asking the expected questions, but rather: What interests and frameworks inform the questions we ask and the way in which we interpret our sources? How does scholarship echo (and even participate in) contemporary public discourses about Christian identity?

Keywords

• Critical reflexivity
• textual re-reading
• public debate
• ancient resurrection beliefs
• modern resurrection debate