Eternal Life

Perhaps the centerpiece of Augustinian theology, the concept of 'eternal life', is, if not incoherent, at least paradoxical.  For, one the one hand, the concept of 'eternity' that it entails is modeled on the immutability of Platonic Forms, which that system contrasts with transient Becoming.  On the other, Augustine's concept of 'life' is based on the image of the breath of God, which, in passages such as Genesis 2:7, is contrasted with inanimate dust.  Hence, his 'eternal life' is animated, and, yet, immobile, a notion which might accommodate deathlessness, but not Growth, which is one of the fundamental characteristics of Life.  In other words, his 'eternal' and his 'life' are inversely related, so while their combination might be theologically accepted as 'paradoxical', philosophically, it is incoherent.  Thus, the 'Christianity' that the self-described 'inverter of Platonism', Nietzsche, characterizes as 'Platonism for the masses', seems more the Augustinian tradition than a Biblical doctrine based directly on passages such Gen. 2:7.