From Michael Ruse:

The dogma of the universal resurrection is “difficult for rational comprehension,” but it requires for us a different kind of comprehension.

Metropolitan Hilarion starts with how apostolic teaching differs from ancient philosophy. Essentially, if there is no resurrection of the dead with the same body and soul then, 1) our faith is empty of power and hope, and 2) there seems to be no major difference between Christians and Plato or Pythagoras, Kant, or Nietzsche.

The Prophets of Israel and the Old Testament give witness to belief in the resurrection of the dead as well as in the Gospels. There is also discussion in more detail about exactly how the body returns to the soul and the soul to the body, and especially important is that all are resurrected whether for paradise or punishment. Other dogmas and teachings that connect to this topic are: baptism, eschatology, creation of the cosmos, the second coming, and the final judgment.

In practice,

…the dogma of the resurrection of the dead has a deep spiritual-moral significance. From the view of many Fathers of the Church, this dogma reveals that eschatological perspective in the light of which Christian moral law acquired meaning.