This article looks at how two apparently unrelated issues—the afterlife and reproductive loss—turn out to be interrelated in complex theological and ethical ways. Eschatology is important to address, because how one thinks about resurrected bodies in the afterlife has implications for how one treats bodies that procreate in this life. Rethinking the notion of personhood lies at the heart of clarifying the nature of the resurrection. This article presents a theological anthropology that draws from the recent philosophical theory known as emergence. This theory allows us to conceptualize the resurrection of the “spiritual body” as a divinely initiated organic process that begins from a “bare seed” at death (1 Cor 15:44, 37). I hope to demonstrate that an emergence model of the resurrection both speaks to those grieving reproductive loss and also avoids eclipsing women’s exercise of moral discernment in reproductive matters.

本文着眼于两个明显不相关的问题——来世和生殖损失——如何以复杂的神学和伦理方式相互关联。末世论很重要，因为人们如何看待来世复活的身体会影响人们如何对待今生生育的身体。重新思考人格的概念是澄清复活本质的核心。本文介绍了一种神学人类学，它借鉴了最近被称为“涌现”的哲学理论。这个理论使我们能够将“灵体”的复活概念化为一个神圣发起的有机过程，从死亡时的“裸种子”开始（1 Cor 15:44, 37）。