Letter 7

From: Ferrandus, deacon of Carthage To: Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop (final letter) Date: ~533 AD Context: Ferrandus writes a final theological letter to his revered teacher Fulgentius, who was aging and would die in 533, on questions of eschatology and the final state of the blessed. Ferrandus, the most unworthy of servants, to the most holy and blessed Bishop Fulgentius, greetings. I write knowing that you are unwell and that the years of your life may be drawing toward their close, and I write therefore with a particular seriousness and a particular gratitude. The gratitude first: what you have given me — in your letters, in your theological teaching, in the example of your life — is the most important intellectual and spiritual formation I have received from any human being. Augustine formed me through his writings; you formed me in person, and the two together have made me whatever I am as a thinker and as a Christian. Now the theological question, which I raise because I know you will want to use what remains of your time usefully: in the resurrection, what is the nature of the bodies we will possess? Paul's language in 1 Corinthians 15 — "spiritual body," "heavenly," "imperishable" — points toward something genuinely different from what we now experience, but the continuity between the body we now have and the body we will have seems important to the doctrine of resurrection as distinct from mere survival of the soul. I ask this partly out of genuine curiosity and partly because I suspect you, who are about to know the answer, may have thoughts worth preserving. Your devoted and grateful student, Ferrandus