How to think resurrection
On Tuesday, 9 June 2026, Professor Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers University) gave a lecture as part of an online colloquium moderated by Klaus Viertbauer. Around twenty students and faculty members from the University of Education Weingarten participated in the event and engaged in discussion with the speaker.
The question of the resurrection of the dead belongs to the central Christian beliefs. At the same time, it is confronted with a scientifically informed worldview according to which the human being is understood as a conscious organism. Against this background, the question arises of how the idea of personal resurrection can be rendered coherent at all. Dean Zimmerman addresses this tension using the tools of contemporary analytic metaphysics. In a series of articles, he develops, among other things, the so-called Falling Elevator Model, which conceives resurrection as a process in which personal identity is preserved despite radical bodily destruction, without requiring continuous physical substrate continuity.
In a lively and highly stimulating discussion with the participants, Zimmerman responded extensively to questions, objections, and critical reflections. A particular focus was placed on whether, and to what extent, resurrection can be meaningfully conceived under the conditions of a strictly naturalistic understanding of the human being without overstretching or diluting the concept of personal identity.
Dean Zimmerman is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University (New Jersey). He is one of the internationally leading figures in contemporary metaphysics of persons and works especially on questions of personal identity, time, and resurrection.
The event is part of an initiative to internationalize the field of Catholic Theology / Religious Education.