Anatoly Maximovich: So, if I understand you correctly, the attitude of Christianity to this question has really changed over the centuries; Maybe not in the main, but in the sense that at one time the emphasis was on one thing, and at other times on another? You said that a suspicious attitude towards the flesh is characteristic of the later period of Christianity, that is, of the Middle Ages; Now this attitude has been abandoned, and the flesh and spirit are again considered as equals?

Metropolitan Anthony: You see, to say that now such an attitude has been abandoned, of course, would be a little optimistic; but the basic, primary faith of the Christian Church, of the biblical tradition, is now being experienced and comprehended with new depth and power.

Anatoly Primakovych: I noted your word "optimistically". But in connection with the Resurrection of Christ —

I can explain to you. If it were simply said that Christ should be considered God by virtue of His ethical teaching, by virtue of the sacrifice He made, then some would believe it, while others would not. And in order to convince a larger number of people of this, a reference to some supernatural event was needed — for many people expect a miracle from God.

Metropolitan Anthony: I think that this is historically incorrect; I think that the Christian faith began from the moment when some people – the apostles, several women who came to the tomb of the Savior after His crucifixion and death, an increasing number of people – had a direct experience, that is, a real experience that the One Whom they saw in the hands of His enemies, the One Whom they saw dying on the cross and lying in the tomb – LIVES, among them. This is not a late dogma, it is one of the first things that the Gospel speaks of; this is the main motif, the main theme of the Gospel preaching: that Christ lives, and since He is alive, everything else becomes reliable, plausible; He is really what He said about Himself and what they thought of Him. I think that it is quite the opposite: this is not an argument that was later invented or brought to the consciousness of people to achieve propaganda goals, it is the primary faith, without which the disciples would simply flee like a defeated army, like a dispersed herd, and would have been finally destroyed.

Anatoly Maximovich: A natural reaction, in other words?

Metropolitan Anthony: What does "natural reaction" mean? I don't understand you.

Anatoly Maximovich: In other words, the fact that after Christ's death His disciples felt that He was alive was a natural reaction to His death?

Metropolitan Anthony: This is not exactly a "natural reaction"; reaction would be an inner experience. What is being discussed here is a whole series of physical phenomena: for example, the myrrh-bearing women saw and physically, with their hands, touched the living body of the risen Christ; the apostles, when Christ appeared among them, were as astonished and incredulous as you are now; but Christ said to them, "Do not be afraid, I am not a spirit, not a ghost, a ghost has no flesh and bones like me; Give me something to eat... And he ate before them (Luke 24:36-43). The Apostle Thomas was invited to touch Him (John 20:27). At the end of the Gospel story, the Evangelists insist that over and over again they had to discover the fact that Christ, who had died a few days before, was alive in the flesh, physically among them. And this surprised them no less than modern man.

Anatoly Maximovich: But why do you say that without this, the students would have fled and been dispersed? Was not Christ's ethical teaching sufficient to bring them together?

Metropolitan Anthony: It seems to me that the center of the entire Gospel is not in ethical teaching.

Anatoly Maximovich: It can't be!

Metropolitan Anthony: Ethical teaching is derivative and almost secondary for me. It seems to me that for a Christian, the absolute center of the Gospel is the historical person of Christ, Who was both God and man, and if this is taken away, then the teaching of Christ is one of the teachings that can be perceived to a greater or lesser extent. The disciples might have stayed together as an ethical group, but they would never have come out to preach about Christ. The Apostle Paul says that all his preaching consists in preaching about Christ crucified and resurrected, that if Christ has not risen, then His disciples are the most unhappy of people, because they build their worldview and life on fantasy, on hallucinations, on lies (1 Corinthians, ch. 15).

Anatoly Maximovich: Why hallucinations and lies? – are based on certain ethical principles. After all, these are principles that were clearly worth preaching. Can you imagine that if there were no such ethical principles, Christianity would have spread as much as it really did?