Quotes of the Day for January 23, 2026 – Thoughts on resurrection
- Michael Haldas
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
“It’s critical that we understand the uniqueness of the traditional Christian message about the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is why, when the gospel message was first preached, most people found it unbelievable—it was preposterous, like nothing they’d ever heard before. And even now, it is unbelievable to most people for exactly the same reason. That God could truly become man, that there could be a resurrection from the dead, and that said resurrection should begin with the God-man seems crazy to most people these days—sometimes even to Christian people.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“We will find it hard to have a robust understanding of the goodness of creation, let alone God’s intention to renew the earth, if the doctrine of resurrection is not central to our belief system. The paschal promise of a renewed body impacts everything we do, from how we engage with the world to how we think about the deeds we perform with our bodies. Yet over the years, the doctrine of general resurrection has become less and less central for many Christians, even sometimes receding into oblivion.” (Robin Phillips)
“Christ’s resurrection is an act of God’s love. It is not self-love, for the resurrection is not Christ’s alone, but rather is fully shared with all of humanity…The resurrectional life of Christ begins, this side of the grave, in the life of a continual dying to this world, this world, that is, as it stands opposed to God. While “the resurrection of the soul” may be attained in this world, becoming a true witness to Christ’s own resurrection, the body itself must still die before it is raised again…the Resurrection is more important than the Cross, in a way. Until we begin to overcome our fear of death, have seen the light of Pascha, we cannot possibly begin to bear the many crucifixions necessary in making our lives a living art. We have to look to the Resurrection first, and then take up our cross.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh, Fr. John Behr, Timothy G. Patitsas)
“The repentance of sins is never anything less than resurrection from the dead. There is not a “reform” of that which is dead. It is a “new creation” in the words of St. Paul. It is the brushing away of the ashes that are so nearly Nothing. I have found these ideas helpful in dealing with other people (and myself). That bridgehead of goodness is often held captive, trapped in the web of near-nothingness that we call sin. When we pray for others, we pray for the truth of their being, and its triumph (in Christ) over all opposition. Most importantly, it is vital that we recognize, even in the darkest of souls, that something remains of the good. In the work of salvation, it is the discovery and nurture of that very thing that is essential. We must fan the coal and pray for the flame of God to consume us.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“… the eschatological resurrection has been regarded as a matter of the fate of the individual. This is totally unbiblical and can lead, in fact, to the undermining of the very concept of the resurrection. Biblical thought and early Christianity, on the other hand, associated the hope of human immortality with the broader eschatological transformation of the world and the general resurrection of the dead. Immortality is inconceivable outside the general resurrection and a transformation of creation as a whole (2 Peter 3:10), since corruption and mortality are a problem not only of the human individual but of all creatures in the present world. Thus, the Christian concept of the resurrection is both corporal and corporate. It is corporal in that it is the resurrection of the body, and it is corporate because it is general and concerns the entire human race and, by extension, creation as a whole. The being that resurrection restores is a being of community and communion, not of the individual.” (Metropolitan John Zizioulas)