According to Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas, man is a composite of body and soul, whereby the soul is the substantial form of the human body. The soul is immaterial and will continue to exist after death as an incomplete substance, whilst the body returns back to dust. From the nature of man which has the intellective power to know the natures of bodies and the power of the will to appetise that which is known, man is naturally both a knower and a lover. Through the acts of knowledge and love, man comes to perfection and thereby attains happiness. The nature of man is then ordered towards the attainment of happiness as the natural end of his actions.
As man's actions of knowledge to attain truth and love to attain the good are accomplished as acts ordered towards ends. Man's acts have a teleology towards proximate ends, which in turn are ordered towards intermediate ends, which are ordered (subordinated) to an ultimate end. The ultimate end of human acts is the ultimate good, which alone is the cause of perfect human happiness. Man then has a natural tendency to always acts towards the ultimate end to obtains happiness.
If we look at nature we see a similar pattern of teleology of acts towards the good. The seed has a teleology towards the tree, whereby the seed grows into the tree. And the tree has a teleology towards the fruit, whereby the tree produces fruit. Nature has a teleology of acts ordered towards ends that are good and the good is, as a normative rule attained, as from natural tendencies within natural substances, which efficaciously act for natural goods, as natural ends. Nature then has a tendency towards acting for the good, as through actions from integral substances. For it is the integral seed that becomes the tree, and the integral tree which becomes the fruit.
Similarly, man as an integral nature of body and soul also acts for ends and thereby has a natural tendency to act for the ultimate end and attain happiness. And yet at death, man's soul is separated from his body and his soul continues to exist without the body. The human soul is then able to act for the ultimate good and attain happiness without the use of the human body. But such a happiness of the separated soul is imperfect, for the separated soul is an incomplete substance acting without the body. And as an incomplete substance, the human soul is not acting as man with an integral nature. As such, if the human soul is reunited to the body, the soul could again act with the body as through an integral nature to attain the ultimate end of man as the ultimate good attained by man, as man, and not just as the soul of man.
The nature of natural substances (such as a tree) which exist as integral substances and then act efficaciously for the good, infers man, as an integral substance composed of a union of physical body and immaterial soul, should also act efficaciously act for the good, and thereby attain the end of man as happiness. And such a combination of man acting in accord with -
1) The general law of nature, whereby natural substances are integral whole substances.
and
2) The specific law of nature, whereby each substance exists and acts in accord with the nature of the metaphysical parts of the substance to attain to the natural end of the substance.
Infers after man's death, the metaphysical parts of man as the human, 1) immaterial soul should be reunited to the 2) human body again, so that man can act in accord with the general law of nature, and act as an integral whole of nature, to attain the ultimate end of man, which is the attainment of the good as man's happiness. Or again, from the nature of substances acting efficaciously for the good, and man having an immortal, immaterial soul, the soul should be reunited with the body after death. The universal law of integral substances, and the nature of man point to the fittingness of the general resurrection of man, whereby all men are again an integral composite of body and soul acting for the good.
From reason alone, we can see the fittingness of the general resurrection. And yet the fittingness of the general resurrection does not of itself prove the general resurrection will necessarily occur. And yet, one may posit the reunion of body and soul after death as through the power of God, which is known to currently operate to keep all creatures in existence. For creatures only have being, as the fundamental perfection, as the act to be. The creatures act to be is caused by God as the universal cause of all being. As all of the universe is then caused to be by God himself, God is the universal act of power that keeps all things existing. The power of God manifest within the universe acts co-naturally with all creatures, for creatures to act for ends.
God's power acts with creatures for creatures to act efficaciously for ends to attain to the good. God as the author of being is the good and is the ultimate term of all of creatures actions. God as the ultimate good never acts to keep creatures from attaining the ends and the goods to which creatures are ordered. For God is the prime orderer of all creatures and is the prime cause of all efficacious actions of all creatures. And as man is a creature, God also acts co-naturally with man, for man to attain to the good, as man. So when God instituted the nature of man, it is fitting that God provides the power to restore man back to his original nature as a composite of body and soul for man to attain to the good and happiness.
The power of God that currently keeps all things in existence is a sure source to provide the act of power required to reunited man's body and soul when God determines that the divine work be accomplished at the general resurrection. Any deficiency of power within the nature of man as through death and the separation of body and soul is accounted for by God as the author of man, who always institutes a creature with a nature that does not have any natural impediement within the created order to frustrate man's attainment of happiness. For if man could never attain to human happiness as man, God would have instituted man with a nature that is frustrated by the very order of the universe created by God.
God would then have placed a contradiction within the created order to have man ordered towards the good, as man, and yet create the universe with death, to prevent man from attaining the good. Such a contradiction within the created order infers the God of creation is not a real God, but a false God of frustration and illusion. Evidently, the true God does not create to frustrate, but to bring created natures to their ultimate tterm in the good. Therefore, because God always acts with natures, and man needs to act as an integral whole of body and soul, and God is both infinitely good and powerful, God will act with the nature of man to bring about the general resurrection of the dead at a time dictated by God.
Conclusion - From reason alone we expect God to act with power at a time and place to cause the general resurrection of man. The ressurected man will then act as an integral whole to attain to that end of man as the good. Of course, God is the good of the universe, and by acting to resurrect man, God is acting to permit man to act for Him, to thereby grant man the ability to give glory to God.
Objection 1) We see natures such as tree exist and then die. We should expect the natures only attain to a natural good until death and then those natures continue as dead, unto corruption and remain as such. The norm is that God acts with natures, which are composites of body and soul as real parts of a nature for the nature to continue until corruption at death.
Answer 1) Natures are composed of parts, as body and soul and God does act with natures that are composed, and which subsequently, naturally decompose. Yet the nature of plants and animals is to have a material soul united with a body and not an immaterial soul united to a body, as occurs in the nature of man. God then acts with animals and plants to have them continue in corruption and need not resurrect animals and plants. But contrarily, because man has a contrary, immaterial soul, God will then act with the nature of the immaterial soul which always retains its transendental relation to the human body, to reunite man's body and soul to allow man to attain to man's ultimate end as the good. Also as man alone has an end beyond the natural goods of this world, God also acts with man to resurrect him and thereby permit man to attain to God.
Objection 2) Man can attain to happiness without the body as through contemplation of the good after death. Therefore there is no need of the general resurrection at the end of time.
Answer 2) Man can contemplate the good after death, but his happiness after death without the body is incomplete. As man's happiness is only complete when man acts with an integral nature, God will act to ensure man acts as man to contemplate the good and thereby obtain happiness.
Objection 3) The general resurrection is an act of God against the nature of man which has parts, which have an accompanying tendency to fall apart. When man falls apart, God should always comply with the nature of man to permit man to continue as a separated soul and not use any power as an act of violence against the natural corruption of man.
Answer 3) God does always act with nature, and as such, God will act with nature for man to achieve his ultimate end as man. For man is naturally composed of parts, which have a tendency to fall apart. And yet those parts have a natural tendency to come together again. For the soul is the substantial form of the body, which is to be a transcendental relation to the body. The soul is from its very nature ordered to be the first form of the particular body, rather than exist alone and without the body. The natural structuring of the soul as a form of the body infers God will act with the nature of the soul to bring about a reunion of body and soul. What seems to be an act of God that is violent, to reunited the body and soul after a nautral corruption of the man, is in fact an act of God that occurs to restore the fullness of nature to man.
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