AGING
“Paul describes in II Corinthians 4:16 the outer nature is winding down, petering out, while the inner self is being born as a new, or renewed creature. The new I, now coming into being is entirely composed of what remains of the old disintegrating self. This is the beginning – the first pang of the resurrection of the body into eternal life.” “Paul’s language is that of classic mysticism: the outer self, the body-mind entity, is transient, what the scholastics called accidental. The inner self, the soul-entity, is the essential self, and it is permanent, immortal and, scholastically speaking, substantial.” Someone asked William James at age 70 if he believed in immortality and he replied: “Never strongly, but more so as I grow older.” At 80, Archibald MacLeish said, “You have to begin to look ahead.” Douglas MacArthur evaluated his life on his 75th birthday, saying: “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals.…
To view this resource, log in or sign up for a subscription plan
