Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 37:1 (Apr 2024)
Article: Book Review: "Embodied Afterlife: He Hope Of An Immediate Resurrection"
Author: Lewis R. Polzin

Conspectus 37:1 (April 2024) p. 96

Book Review: Embodied Afterlife: He Hope Of An Immediate Resurrection

Lewis R. Polzin

Falconer, Robert. 2023. Embodied Afterlife: The Hope of an Immediate Resurrection. St. Francis Bay: Stockbridge Books. 229 pp. ISBN 978- 0–6397–9183–8. Approx. 207.59 ZAR (10.98 USD). Paperback.

1. Introduction

While much of Christianity in the West seems to think of the hope we have in Jesus Christ as dying and going to heaven, the biblical reality is much more embodied and physical. Rev. Dr. Robert Falconer seeks to correct this error by presenting a view that is more familiar to reality, more hopeful, and more biblical than what is found pop-theology. Born and raised in South Africa, Falconer holds degrees in architecture and theology. He is husband to Catherine and father to two sons, ordained in the Holy Orders of the Anglican Church, and the Head of Student Research at the South African Theological Seminary. Falconer began his professional work in architecture in Scotland and South Africa, has served as a missionary in Kenya with his wife, and continues as a theologian with interests in Neo-Calvinism, African Philosophical-Theology, Architecture and Theology, Soteriology, and the Resurrection.

2. Overview Of Embodied Afterlife

The Christian faith is not gnostic but looks to find its telos in the bodily resurrection and everlasting life in Christ. The three Ecumenical Creeds, as guides to the faith, speak to the resurrection but merely say it is coming, not how one would experience it. If one speculates on how the resurrection will take place, it can be an adiaphoron1 so long as it avoids heresy. While it seems that many Christians, if not most, believe there is an intermediate state between death in this world and life in the world to come, Falconer (p. 9) posits an intriguing theory: an immediate bodily resurrection after death. This immediate resurrection is not soul sleep. Rather, it is a transformative experience where one does not experience a time of waiting or incompleteness, but Christ raises them from the dead on the Last Day immediately after they experience a temporal death (pp. 153, 156).

Falconer explores this theory of the immediate resurrection in an ordered and understandable eight-chapter journey. First, he investigates the historical truth about Christ’s resurrection. The subject of James Turner’s On the Resurrection of the Dead: A New Metaphysics of Afterlife for Christian Thought (2019) composes the second chapter. Third, Falconer explores select scriptural passages to understand what happens following death. The fourth chapter investigates whether the theory of the immediate resurrection conforms to the bib...