Death and Afterlife

Question 1

what does disembodied existence mean?

Answer 1

Existing without a physical body.

Question 2

What does resurrection mean?

Answer 2

Living on after death in a glorified physical form in a new realm.

Question 3

Define beatific vision?

Answer 3

A face to face encounter with God.

Question 4

Define purgatory?

Answer 4

A place where people go to temporarily after death to be cleared of sin before they are fit to live with God.

Question 5

Define Election?

Answer 5

Predestination, chosen by God for heaven or Hell.

Question 6

Define limited Election?

Answer 6

The view that God only choses a small number of people for heaven.

Question 7

Define original sin?

Answer 7

A state of wrongdoing in which people are born because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Question 8

Define unlimited election?

Answer 8

The view that all people are called to salvation but only a few will be saved.

Question 9

Define universalism?

Answer 9

The view that all people will be saved.

Question 10

Define parable?

Answer 10

A story to highlight a moral message.

Question 11

Define particular judgement?

Answer 11

judgement for each person at the point of death.

Question 12

Define Parousia?

Answer 12

Used in Christianity to refer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Question 13

What does Christianity teach about what happens to our souls after death?

Answer 13

Christianity teaches that people have souls which are capable of surviving the death of the body.
People are resurrected and live on in a new dimension, some with God in heaven.
According to Christianity there is life after death, but not in this world but in a new kind of existence.

Question 14

what idea do Christians reject?

Answer 14

Christians reject the idea that a human soul can leave one physical body at the point of death and be reborn into a new physical body in the same world( reincarnation)

Question 15

Christians also reject Platos idea of the soul and body, what is this?

Answer 15

The soul and body will part company, with the body decomposing whilst the soul moves on by itself- a post- death disembodied existence.

Question 16

What does Christianity teach instead about the body and soul?

Answer 16

Teaches that life after death will take the form of resurrection, where the person will be given a new spiritual body in which to continue his or her journey into the next life.

Question 17

What do Christians believe about a person who lives after death?

Answer 17

They believe that the person who lives after death is still the same person but they will be incorruptible.

Question 18

What do Christians believe?

Answer 18

The resurrection is a miracle from God.

Question 19

Before Jesus who believed in the resurrection?

Answer 19

Pharisees believed in the resurrection and it is mentioned in the old testament in the book of Daniel. Christians base their belief In the resurrection on Biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.

Question 20

What do the Gospels say about Jesus body after he died?

Answer 20

The Gospels say that after Jesus was crucified and died, his body was placed in a tomb with a heavy stone over the entrance. On the third day the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus was then seen and heard by his followers, as a man in a physical body.

Question 21

Christians believe that the resurrection of Jesus demonstrates what?

Answer 21

That they too will be resurrected after death.

Question 22

What does Paul write about?

Answer 22

Paul writes about life after death in his two letters the Corinthians- He uses metaphors to explain his beliefs.

Question 23

What does 1 Corinthians say about Pauls beliefs?

Answer 23

In 1 Corinthians he uses the metaphor of a seed transforming into a new plant it will become, to show how the physical earthly body will be transformed to fulfil its potential.

Question 24

What does 2 Corinthians say about Pauls beliefs?

Answer 24

In 2 Corinthians he uses the metaphor of a tent being replaced with a soli house, to show how life in this world is temporary and will be replaced by something long- lasting, and how life after death will provide a home.

Question 25

What other metaphor in 2 Corinthians does Paul use?

Answer 25

He uses the metaphor of being naked in this world but clothed in the afterlife, to show that we will no longer need to be ashamed.

Question 26

traditionally Christians describe the afterlife as what?

Answer 26

Christians describe the afterlife in terms of ‘ going to heaven’.

Question 27

What do Christians use to describe heaven?

Answer 27

Christians use different symbols and analogies to describe heaven whilst also accepting that the nature of life after death remains a mystery yet to be revealed.

Question 28

What are some of the Christian symbols for heaven?

Answer 28

• The idea of returning to a family home
• The idea of a place where there will be no more suffering
• The idea of plenty
• The idea of being surrounded by angels
• The idea of meeting God the father who will be seated on a throne.

Question 29

What are the descriptions of heaven not meant to be taken?

Answer 29

They are not meant to be taken literally- Most Christians do not believe that heaven is literally a ‘ place’, but instead view it as a spiritual place. Heaven is the state in which a person recognises and accepts God’s grace, and is forgiven and made whole ( while hell is a state where a person rejects God and chooses sin).

Question 30

What do some Christians understand heaven as?

Answer 30

Some Christians understand heaven as the transformation and perfection of the whole of creation, when Jesus will come to earth again ( known as the Parousia or second coming)

Question 31

Where does the Bible give ideas about heaven and symbolic language?

Answer 31

In parables such as ‘ the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus’ in Luke 16:19-31

Question 32

What do some people argue about the idea of heaven after death?

Answer 32

People say that it raises more questions than it answers, especially if people have resurrected physical bodies which take up space. If these bodies are physical then there are questions such as what and how people would eat and whether they would age.

Question 33

What is another argument about the idea of heaven after death?

Answer 33

It is difficult to see how we could be ‘ the same person’ in heaven if we have a different ‘glorified’ body and are eternal. Some people argue that this makes heaven nonsensical and others argue that it is a mystery we cannot expect to understand in this life.

Question 34

How did Bernard Williams criticise Christian ideas about heaven?

Answer 34

He said that it would get boring after a while because people would run out of things to do and would not have the exciting challenge of making choices about how to use a limited lifespan.
Some respond by saying that being in the presence of the wonders of God could never get boring, and that God would make sure we never felt boredom just as we would never feel pain.

Question 35

What did Aquinas think of the afterlife?

Answer 35

In terms of a beatific vision, in which people come fact- to face with God for all eternity.

Question 36

What did Aquinas think about the beatific vision?

Answer 36

It was not in time, so he rejected the view that Christians would see the face of God day after day, for ever.

Question 37

What did Aquinas think instead?

Answer 37

He thought that is would be a timeless vision. There would be no more time, but the past, present. and future would all be brought together. This might avoid the problems of the possibility of heaven getting boring or taking up room.

Question 38

Who supported Aquinas view?

Answer 38

The catholic theologian Karl Rahner supported the view of a timeless afterlife, agreeing that the idea of endless days had too many problems.

Question 39

However what philosophical issues does this arise?

Answer 39

How people might be resurrected into physical bodies for the beatific vision- given that physical bodies exist in time- and how people could continue to be the same person as they were before death, when so many human characteristics are directly related to living within time.

Question 40

What do Christians believe about the idea of hell?

Answer 40

Christian teaching presents the idea of hell as a place of eternal punishment, separated from Gods presence.

Question 41

What is hell sometimes described as in the bible?

Answer 41

Hell is sometimes described in terms of fire and torture, sometimes darkness and sometimes as rubbish dump. It is often described as being in a downward direction from this world.

Question 42

How does the concept of hell raise difficult issues?

Answer 42

Questions about whether hell is compatible with the idea of an omnipotent, loving and perfectly merciful God.

Question 43

What question did Hume raise?

Answer 43

He raised the question about whether there could be anything a human being could do that would justly deserve eternal punishment.

Question 44

What do some people argue about God?

Answer 44

Some people argue that wronging God deserves infinite punishment because God is infinitely good.

Question 45

What does the concept of hell also raise?

Answer 45

issues of whether hell would get boring after a while.

Question 46

What did Hick argue about the idea of hell?

Answer 46

Hick argued that a loving God would not follow his creatures to suffer for all eternity; he was a universalist, believing that there would eventually be salvation for all people and that the afterlife is an opportunity to continue a spiritual journey.

Question 47

Some people argue that there would be no point in having what?

Answer 47

In having eternal punishment, as it would achieve nothing (except perhaps as a deterrent from sin for those who have not yet died). This has led to the argument that notions of hell were invented as a form of social

Question 48

What is purgatory?

Answer 48

A place where people go, temporarily, after death to be cleansed for sin before they are fit to live with God.

Question 49

Purgatory does not appear where?

Answer 49

explicitly in the Bible but was developed as a concept by early Christian thinker’s such as Origen and Augustine

Question 50

In the sixth century what pope explored what about?

Answer 50

In the sixth century, Pope Gregory further explored the idea of a place or state where souls could be cleansed after death before they are fit to enter heaven. He understood a verse from Matthews Gospel (12.32) to mean that there could be forgiveness after death.

Question 51

What is purgatory traditionally understood to be?

Answer 51

A place of pain and cleansing, often symbolised by, fire when the soul recognises its sin and is punished but not for ever.

Question 52

what does catholic teaching include?

Answer 52

catholic teaching includes the belief hat the prayers of the living can help the souls of the dead to endure the experience.

Question 53

what was Rahner belief about purgatory?

Answer 53

Rahner explored the doctrine of purgatory and argued that it should be understood not as a horrible place of pain, but as a metaphor for the souls greater awareness of the consequences of sin and the holiness of God.

Question 54

what do protestants believe about purgatory?

Answer 54

Protestants usually do not believe in purgatory, on the grounds that it is not explicit biblical teaching and the doctrine suggests that Christ sacrifice on the cross did not bring about complete salvation. In the middle ages, the practice of charging people money to pay for a shortened time in purgatory was heavily criticised by protestant reformers.

Question 55

What is election?

Answer 55

Election is sometimes called predestination. It is the belief that God chooses the eternal destiny of each human soul. God knows, before people are born, whether or not they will go to heaven.
The idea is closely associated with sixthneeth- century theologian John Calvin.

Question 56

What do some Christians argue?

Answer 56

Some Christians argue that because God is omniscient, he must know what will happen to each person before they are born. Because God is omnipotent it is gods control to choose what happens to people.

Question 57

Augustine and some others thought what ?

Answer 57

They taught that a doctrine of ‘ limited election’, claiming that God would save some people through grace, but only a limited number. Augustine argued that no one could deserve salvation because of original sin. Augustine thought that election was a sign of Gods grace and evidence of Gods great love.

Question 58

Calvin taught that God what?

Answer 58

That God chose some people for eternal life in heaven and some for eternal punishment.

Question 59

The idea of election is what?

Answer 59

It is controversial and not accepted by all Christians. Karl Barth taught a doctrine of unlimited election, saying that Jesus brought salvation for the whole world and anyone who accepted the Christian message would be saved.

Question 60

What did the twentieth- century theologian Hick say?

Answer 60

He went further and taught that everyone will be saved eventually, whether Christian or not. Everyone will continue their spiritual journey after death and an all- loving God will ensure that everyone is saved.

Question 61

Who has Hicks view been criticised by?

Answer 61

Pope Benedict XVI, who said that if everyone is saved regardless of their faith then Christs death seems pointless.