De resurrectione (“On the Resurrection”), a work by Methodius of Olympus, written shortly before the alleged martyrdom of the Author (probably in 311), was the first to present in a profound and organic fashion the orthodox response to a number of eschatological positions of Origen and his followers, which were based on a common Platonic philosophical background. The value of this dialogue consists above all in a new way of reasoning that will continue and be developed in successive centuries, not to mention in the form which will permit the Author to develop a polemic on various levels.
The task of this research is to outline the fundamental anthropological categories used by Methodius to defend the reasonableness of faith regarding the resurrection of the flesh. Particular attention will be placed on the argument which is based on Scriptures as well as that based on the natural sciences of the time (cosmology, medicine). By referring to them, the Olympian tried to prove the existence of the constitutive elements that, beginning with the prenatal development of each person, shape the human body in an unrepeatable way. According to him, the individual elements of the body, unlike the humoral mass, are “personal” and therefore the resurrection, implicating physical categories, is possible, just and worthy of God. This concept allows Methodius to maintain the material and formal identity between the earthly body and the risen one. The Author juxtaposes this concept to that of the eidos somatikon used by Origen, which he considers imprecise, insufficient and incongruous. According to him, the glorious transformation and spiritualization of the risen body does not imply an abandonment of matter, or material qualities, but rather the gain of incorruptibility, immortality and impassibility in full communion with the Holy Spirit.
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