Death & The Afterlife
Questions you should be able to answer within this topic:
- whether or not God’s judgement takes place immediately after death or at the end of time
• whether or not hell and heaven are eternal
• whether or not heaven is the transformation and perfection of the whole of creation
• whether or not purgatory is a state through which everyone goes
Resurrection of Jesus by Raphael, 1502
Is the Afterlife a Physical Place?
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St. Paul and Augustine: the afterlife involves the physical resurrection of our bodies. St. Paul refers to the resurrection of Jesus as "the firstfruits" - it was the inaugural resurrection, to be followed by ours.
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1 Corinthians 15:22 - "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
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Upon resurrection, we'll get a new and enhanced body because "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God... we will all be changed."
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“Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” - Luke 24:39
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Augustine: the resurrection of our earthly bodies in an exalted form is more plausible than the the resurrection of a sinful body.
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Augustine: the physical resurrection of our bodies is proven by Christ's resurrection.
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Jesus' resurrection is like the prototype, a template of what will happen to us when we die.
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Support: Jesus' tomb was empty after he was resurrected - implying a physical resurrection and a physical afterlife.
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Problem: When Jesus resurrected, he was able to appear and disappear at will - implying a more spiritual resurrection.
Is the Afterlife Spiritual?
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The idea of a physical resurrection is becoming a bit less prominent in modern day Christianity.
- Many Christians tend to focus on the idea of our soul; physical resurrection poses problems about what happens to our soul after we die but before the resurrection.
- There is Biblical evidence to suggest that there is a period of particular judgement immediately after death followed by a non physical existence.
"I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ" (Philippians 1:22)
- Some people believe that resurrection does happen, but it is a spiritual resurrection. Arguably, Jesus' own resurrection was spiritual as well.
- The idea of a soul actually only entered into Christianity through the Greeks! There is no word for "soul" in Aramaic (the language the Bible was written in).
- What this means is that some scholars who reject the idea of a purely spiritual resurrection claim that this view only came about due to the influence of Plato.
N. T. Wright - There is no mention in any of the passages of the Bible anything about the soul. If they had meant soul, they would have said it.
- During the Enlightenment period, Deism became more popular. Deism is the idea that there is a God, but it is an impersonal and distant God (this is what Kant believes).
- Deism allows for the immortality of the soul, but does not support the idea of a physical resurrection.
Resurrection of the Flesh - Luca Signorelli (c. 1500).
Will the Afterlife be a New Earth?
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The afterlife is: eternal, physical, with final judgement.
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The New Earth theory also supports the idea of the Afterlife as physical.
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The New Earth will be a perfected state of Earth. At the end of time, the Earth will be cleansed and returned to its Eden like state.
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This is where the resurrected bodies of the righteous will live for eternity.
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Revelation 21: ""Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea...'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain,"
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Support: N.T. Wright points out that in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven".
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Support: N. T Wright: The idea of a "floating" heaven is too inspired by Plato's idea of the soul. Heaven instead is a bodily resurrection in a renewed creation.
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Support: Polkinghorne: God will not discard the universe, but will transform it.
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Problem: The book of Revelation leans quite heavily into symbolism, imagery and metaphors. It's apocalyptic literature, so in the context of eschatology Idealists interpret it as entirely symbolic about the struggle between good and evil.
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Problem: Even Pope Benedict XVI said that the book of Revelations should not be read as an absolute warning, but rather should be understood within the context of Christian persecution of the time.
Is the Afterlife Symbolic?
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There are some Christians who believe that the idea of the resurrection is only symbolic. This is a Liberal Christian view.
- This idea believes that the stories in the Bible are more metaphorical, and they are supposed to teach us how to lead good and happy lives and teach us when to repent when we've done wrong.
- Baruch Spinoza believes that if there is an event detailed in the Bible which is inconsistent with natural laws, it must be considered as allegorical or simply a moral teaching.
We should not "confound actual events with symbolical and imaginary ones"
- For Spinoza, God is not a personal, conscious being but nature itself. There is no supernatural dimension to the universe but only one substance - God. This is an idea called Pantheism. So any story in the Bible which implies immortality, or a heaven or a hell or an afterlife should be taken as metaphorical.
- Rudolf Bultmann argues for Demythologization. This means that we should not accept the "mythical world picture" of the Bible. If we remove the supernatural elements from the New Testament, what we are left with is a system of ethics about how to live a good life on Earth.
Baruch Spinoza - one of my personal favourite Philosophers :)
Rudolf Bultmann
John Hick
Is there a Purgatory?
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Purgatory is a Catholic view of the afterlife. It's a "place" that you go after death to cleanse yourself and make yourself worthy of entering Heaven.
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The word Purgatory is not in the Bible at all but we could argue there is some evidence to support it.
“it is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.” 2 Maccabees 12:46
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The idea of praying for the dead is to speed up their process in Purgatory and allow them to enter Heaven quicker.
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However, this belief lead to the extremely controversial Catholic Church's selling of Indulgences. Indulgences themselves are not products because people when alive can partake in these to cleanse themself ready for the afterlife. But the Catholic Church at one point did sell them, which preyed on the grief of family members who wanted to speed up their loved one's suffering in the afterlife. This was a contributing factor towards the Protestant Reformation.
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Protestants reject the idea of Purgatory due to their belief in sola scriptura. Purgatory is not in the Bible, therefore it's not canonical.
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John Hick argues for a type of Purgatory in which you can continue to soul build after death. If you think about Hick's soul making theodicy from Problem of Evil, his theodicy differs from Ireaneus' in this key way.
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Hick argues that an omnibenevolent God would not condemn anyone to hell because there is not crime in our finite lives that could justify an infinite punishment. This idea is known as Universalism.
Election
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Because of how corrupted we are due to the Fall, we are not able to not sin.
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The Fall fundamentally altered how humanity functions and the only way to restore any sort of harmony is by God gifting you Grace.
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Grace is a divine gift which allows only chosen ones to maintain a non-sinful life and enter heaven.
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This links to the idea of Exclusivism. Salvation is only attainable through God.
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So, if God chooses who to gift His Grace to and it is only through God that you can be saved, this means that entrance into heaven is predetermined.
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Augustine believes that all of humanity deserves to be damned because of Original Sin. Those gifted Grace will be saved and they are therefore the Elect.
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So, salvation is not something earned or even attainable, it's given by God.
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Limited Election is the idea that only a few Christians will be saved, this is believed by Jean Calvin.
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Unlimited Election is that everyone has the potential to be saved, but not everyone will.
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Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved, this is believed by John Hick.
