Opinion on the body in antiquity and Christianity

It is often said that only Renaissance humanism freed the body from the curse to which it was condemned by medieval asceticism, as expressed in the sentence “Body, world, devil overpowering.” In fact, we need to go much further back. Indian wisdom seems to have realized first that evil is not only outside us but above all within us. Good and evil exist in every human being. Good is spiritual; evil is bodily, because the body holds passions. As we read in the Buddha’s biography, these passions are the source of all pain (compare this with the story of L. N. Tolstoy, where the hundred Kay is evil).
Greek philosophy has made this idea even clearer. “Man, that’s the soul!” says Socrates in a dialogue by Plato. So the body does not belong to us; we must purify ourselves of it to draw closer to God, who is spiritual. Pythagoras is given the familiar sentence that the body is «the grave of the soul.» This theory, which was widespread at the end of antiquity, has been fundamentally resisted by Christians. God created the whole man, that is, the body. And what God created is, of course, all right. The fundamental article of faith is “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” Why should we rise again in the body if that was not part of our perfection? Jesus Christ became man and took on the body: the Word became the body that happened … (John 1:14). The body of Christ is, therefore, the source of our sanctification.
THAT LIFE IS THE LIGHT OF PEOPLE 
For centuries, Christians have denied burial by burning.
They have entrusted the hope of their flesh to the earth, as if it were a seed that would sprout. From the beginning, they worshiped the remnants of martyrs and saints, because grace already operates here in some way. The belief in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the glorified body also confirms this. “Therefore, let us protect our body,” writes St. Cyril of Jerusalem, «for this is our capital. One day we will account to the Lord for what we have done with the body. Nobody can do anything about it. We lie with our mouths, we pray with our mouths, we sin with uncleanness in our flesh, and we keep our purity. The hand holds what is stolen, and the hand passes the gift. Because the body helps in everything, it will bear the consequences of works. » “Man is a mixture of two elements.” (St. Gregor Naz.)
However, the fact that the body is God’s work and good does not mean it is equal to, or of the same nature as, the soul. Their qualities are in some ways contradictory: the soul is immortal, the body perishes, the thought flies everywhere, the body is bound by the place, the soul flies to God and to eternal truths, and the bodily senses perceive only that which is material. We would never believe it is so “mixed,” with two elements, as St. Gregory of Nazianzus writes. No one else could combine dual qualities into one man; it is God’s visible work, the world’s greatest wonder. Creator, he did nothing without purpose. So why did he create this strange “mixture” of spirit and matter? St. Gregor finds only one answer: a mediator was needed between spirit and matter. God leads everything to unity. The gap between the Creator and creation was bridged by Jesus Christ, the true God and the true man, for one is a mediator between God and men (1 Tim 2:5). The chasm between the clergy In the mortal body, creatures and matter are bridged by the second mediator, created according to Christ, that is, man, who is both spirit and matter. The goal of Christ is the “commodity shield” of all creatures; the goal of man is «spiritualized» matter. V. Soloviov cleverly expands this idea in recent times. It deprives the human soul of the material world, raises its “gravity,” and elevates it to heights. God created the body beautifully, harmoniously, making it an obedient instrument, like a harp of the soul. The senses are like strings on which the soul plays its eternal song. If the body could speak, writes Theodore of Cyrus, he would say about the soul, “Together we went the way of this life. You are without me; she did nothing. She collected treasures with my help, virtues … »