Gerhard Lohfink, longtime professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Tübingen, has written a book in defense of belief in the resurrection of the body largely from citation and analysis of texts out of the New and Old Testaments. It is written in a more popular style and thus is quite suitable for use in adult discussion groups, undergraduate courses in college, and possibly even high-school classes at the junior-senior level. There are thirty-three short chapters subdivided into five subsections: “What People Think,” “What Israel Learned,” “What Entered the World in Jesus,” “What Will Happen to Us,” and “What We Can Do.” In what follows, I will summarize the thought-content of each of these subsections rather than try to say something in particular about each of the thirty-three chapters.

The first subsection spells out alternatives to resurrection of the body as the way to achieve some kind of immortality—for example, survival in one's descendants, continual reincarnation, dissolution into the universe. None of these alternatives is equal to the promise of ongoing life with God in a risen body. The second subsection dealing with the Old Testament understanding of life after death makes clear that the early Israelites thought little of life after death and focused instead on a successful life in this world before dying. Only in some of the Psalms and in the prophecies about the future of Israel in Isaiah and Ezekiel does a hope for life after death begin to take root in the mind-set of the Israelites. The third subsection analyzes Jesus’ life and message. Jesus made little reference to the resurrection of the dead but focused instead on the kingdom of God as a reality already present in this world. Likewise, his miracles were aimed at freeing people from the power of death. His own death and resurrection were proof that the power of God prevails over the power of death.

The fourth subsection, “What Will Happen to Us,” begins with a disclaimer: all that we know about resurrection is derived from reflection on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Accordingly, Lohfink argues that each of us like Jesus will “see” the face of God at the moment of death. In the sight of God, our personal lives and the full course of human history will be revealed to us. This will be a moment of self-judgment in which we recognize our true place in the divine plan for the salvation of the world and have to acknowledge and accept what we did right and what we did wrong. At the same time, we will experience firsthand the mercy of God in dealing with us and everyone else. There is then no need for purgatory. Provided one acknowledges before God one's sinfulness, one is forgiven. For the same reason hell does not exist except for those who are totally self-preoccupied and choose to live in a self-created hell apart from everyone and everything else. In eternity past, present, and future all exist at the same time. Hence, one's personal judgment at the moment of death will coincide with the Last Judgment. But even now through participation in the sacramental life of the church, one shares in the communion of saints and in the progressive incorporation of all of creation into the Trinitarian divine life.

The strength of this defense of Christian belief in the resurrection and eternal life is also its only weakness. For it is obviously addressed to people who already believe in the resurrection but may have some doubts about the traditional understanding of the Four Last Things. From the perspective of non-Christians, however, the book might be praised for its defense of Christian doctrine but be seen as of no personal significance to themselves and their own religious beliefs. For Lohfink offers very little common ground for interreligious dialogue about the meaning of human life with other “wisdom traditions,” some of which antedate the rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.