Death and the afterlife Flashcards
insight
Christian concept of the soul
-people have souls which are capable of surviving death
-Christians reject the idea of bodily rebirth (reincarnation), also Plato’s ideas that the body and soul part company
-Christians teach that life after death will take form of resurrection, where the person will be given a renewed ‘spiritual body’ to continue their journey into the afterlife
resurrection
- the Pharisees taught of resurrection whereas the Sadducees taught on no afterlife
- Jesus’ tomb was empty = belief that he had been resurrected from death to eternal life
- Jesus was seen in physical form after death, Jesus then ascended into heaven, still isn’t clear if this was in his physical body or a spiritual form – many Christians believe Jesus continued in a transformed spiritual body
Doubting Thomas
-someone who is so skeptical that they don’t believe anything without personal experience
-reference to the Gospel of John’s depiction of the Apostle Thomas who refused to believe the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles until he could see and feel Jesus’ crucifixion wounds.
questions/issues surrounding resurrection
-are the Bible passages to be read metaphorically or literally?
-was Jesus’ resurrection unique to him, is something everyone can expect or only available to Christians?
-will resurrection take place immediately after death or at the end of time?
-is there a temporary waiting room?
-will people need some sort of body, if so in what sense will they be the same person? (personal identity)
-does it count if people do good acts only to get into heaven or should people do good and then be rewarded?
-is hell a fair motivation to do good?
St. Paul
-early Church had similar questions to these which St. Paul tried to answer
-Paul was adamant that Jesus had risen from the dead amd that this resurrection was a promise to all Christians
-uses the example of a seed
-“so will it be with the resurrection of the dead. the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable” - Corinthians
-what is a spiritual body? is it made from the same material we are now? - St Paul uses idea of a tent being replaced by a more solid structure to imply that in an afterlife we have a more substantial eternal house rather than an impermanent body
central beliefs for Christians
- traditionally resurrection will involve bodily life (evidenced through the empty tomb and Doubting Thomas), whether this is with a ‘material’ body or ‘spiritual’ body they will be ‘glorified’ and no longer capable of being corrupted
- the resurrected person will be the same person as the one who dies, they will not be just similar but the same person
- life after death will be a miracle given by God. the person is resurrected through the gift and grace of God
Judgement
-separating the good from the bad
-seen in biblical story of the Rich Man and Lazarus
-rich man was too interested in material possessions and ignored the poor man (Lazarus) at is gate
-“the time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment and looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus at his side” -Luke
-story continues how the Rich man asks Lazarus to dip his finger in the water to cool his burning tongue but Abraham responds by saying that the rich man received his good things in life and now it is the poor mans turn
Parable of the Sheep and Goats
-Matthew 25
-Jesus writes about the time when the ‘son of man’ comes and separates people according to their deeds
-“all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats”
-“‘Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew
-either a sheep or goat - no middle ground
-eternal life (sheep) = those who have taken care of other people in need surprisingly nothing in this about belief - no mention of them needing to be Christians or even believe in God
-eternal punishment (goats) = not necessarily done something bad but failed to take opportunities they could have to help others
personal identity
-what makes you the person you are
-your personhood
-distinguishing features of a specific time in your life
-Flew – If Joe is witnessing his own funeral, who is the ‘Joe’ observing and who is the ‘Joe’ being buried?
-solution = say that the Joe observing is some sort of ‘spirit’
-problem with solution is that we only have proven experience of our ‘selves’ as in physical bodies
heaven
-traditionally the faithful will go to heaven
-“My Father’s house has many rooms” - John’s Gospel
-“the great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass” - Revelations
-Catholic tradition believe in the beatific vision described by Aquinas
-Protestants understand heaven as an everlasting existence (live forever with God, their loved ones in eternal worship)
-Bernard Williams, whether an eternity in heaven would really be desirable - maybe a bit boring after a while? if we had perfect bodies and no physical limitations and whatever we wanted to do we could do it?
-Rahner made same point as Williams arguing that it is our limited earthly lives that gives them meaning and used it as a reason to support the view of a timeless afterlife
Aquinas on the afterlife
-following Aristotle’s work in ‘De Anima’, Aquinas taught how the soul was a ‘life principle’ and also the ‘form’ or distinctive characteristic of living things
-all living things have souls:
1. plants have a ‘vegetative soul’
2. animals have a ‘sensitive soul’
3. humans have a ‘rational soul’, because human’s ability to reason and to think intelligently isn’t physical but non physical
-linking this to his Christian faith, Aquinas believed that the soul allows us to reach our potential/ accomplish our purpose = to live eternally in the presence of God
-perfect happiness could only be achieved after death, by living eternally outside of time in a state of perfect bliss
-“for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face” - Corinthians – beatific vision
-problems = 1. If the soul is timeless – isn’t part of who we are that our souls change accordingly to linear time?
2. Is it really possible to assert that the is person experiencing the beatific vision is really the same person as before death?
purgatory
-place or state where the soul is ‘purged’
-catholic teaching mentioned by early Christian thinkers (Augustine):
-according to Catholics:
1.some souls are not in a sufficient state of grace to warrant heaven = need cleansing process
2.maybe some need for pain or punishment but not eternally in hell
3.purging sins in this life (confessions) with repentance also helps
-Rahner developed doctrine of Purgatory arguing tha the soul becomes aware of the consequences of sin, especially own sin before judgement, pain is more the self inflicted pain of recognising your wrong doings
-Protestants, reject Purgatory as it is not a biblical concept and doesn’t support Jesus’ death on the cross and the subsequent salvation
-Pope Gregory in the 6th century developed this idea from Jesus “anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven …either in this age or in the age to come.”
-Pope Gregory saw this passage as referring to
forgiveness, not just in this life but in the next.
Hell
-separated from God for eternity
-place of eternal pain and punishment
-in Bible, hell is described as a rubbish dump or how bad people are thrown into a lake of fiery sulphur (Revelations)
-Hume, argues that the whole concept of hell calls God’s justice into questions because a finite sin can never deserve an infinite punishment
-Hick, further rejects this idea, it is incompatible with a belief of a God of love
-argues that this view was developed as a form of control, encouraging people to be fearful of disobeying religious authorities
-questions how a God of infinite love and mercy could consign his creatures to a punishment from which they have no hopes of escaping
-what would eternal punishment actually achieve?
limited election
-only a few Christians are saved
-controversial ideas
-God chooses the eternal destiny of each human
-God chooses, even before we are born, who will be damned and who will be saved
-God’s omniscience means literally that nothing is unknown for God
limited election - St. Augustine
-pelagianism (born a blank slate, neither good nor bad), Augustine didn’t agree because of ‘Original Sin’
-at first, Augustine believed that God knew our freely chosen actions
-later in life, Augustine believed that only God’s grace decided who will be elected - God chooses
-Augustine recognised this was harsh but a sign of God’s grace
limited election - Calvin (16th century)
-God predestined some for eternal punishment others for eternal life with God
-God is in absolute control
-Very influential especially on the Protestant tradition
-Not universally accepted by Christians because there seems
little point in anyone making a effort
unlimited election - Barth
-election to all
-Jesus brought salvation for the whole world
-through Jesus you can be elected
-means Barth promoted ‘limited election’ only to followers of Christ but because Christ died for everyone can be seen as ‘unlimited election’
unlimited election - Hick
-universalist belief that God will save all people, whatever their beliefs
-Hick was an evangelical Christian
-believed everyone will reach God in the end
-Afterlife is a place where people can develop their faith and grow towards making a choice (Irenaeus perspective - idea of growth)
-believed that different religions are just different expressions of the same universal human desire for God, there is no right or wrong religions but simply different tradition based on cultural differences
-Ratzinger, argues that this view made Christ’s death on cross pointless. If everyone is saved regardless of faith then Jesus just becomes one of many ways to heaven - Parable of Sheep and Goats
critics: no afterlife
-Dawkins: only sense that humans survive death is through the memories of them in other people’s minds, or through genes passed on to offspring
-Russell: human wishful thinking, would you really want ‘witch hunters’ to live forever?, world better understood without God or afterlife
