Death and the Afterlife Flashcards
What do Christian ideas about the Afterlife all involve?
The resurrection of the body (in some form)
What is one Christian teaching about Afterlife?
Christians believe that there is life after death in a new kind of existence.
Life after death will take the form of resurrection, where the person will be given a spiritual body in which to continue his or her journey into the next life.
Jesus’ tomb was empty when people went to visit his body; they found that it had gone because he had been resurrected from death to eternal life.
What does Aquinas believe about the afterlife?
Aquinas believed that humans have a rational soul that sets us apart from other life forms. This soul lives on after the body dies and experiences a beatific vision of God. This will be one eternal moment in the presence of God. Aquinas believed that our purpose (or telos) is union with God and this is only truly possible in the afterlife. In the afterlife we don’t need faith in God as we know he exists. We can enjoy the perfect state of happiness in his presence.
What do Christians reject about how the person gets to the afterlife?
Christians reject the idea that a human soul can leave one physical body and then be reincarnated.
They reject Plato’s idea that the soul and the body could part company with the body decomposing while the soul moves on by itself (disembodied existence).
What is the belief around Jesus’ appearance after death?
When Jesus was missing from the tomb and was found walking around, the accounts make it clear that Jesus was physically present, in a way that could be experienced by the senses of those who were there.
When he ‘ascended into heaven’; it is not clear whether he discarded the resurrected physical body at this point and lived on in some kind of spiritual form or whether he continued in the resurrected body for eternity.
Most Christians believe that Jesus continued to live in the transformed spiritual body.
What do Christians believe about resurrection?
Christians believe the resurrection will involve a bodily life of some form. Resurrected bodies will be ‘spiritual’ and ‘glorified’ and no longer capable of being destroyed or corrupted.
They also believe that the resurrected person will be the same person as the one who died. People will continue in their resurrected state as individuals; they will not merge with God in some way or with each other, but will share an identity with the particular individual who died. They will not just be similar to that person, but will be the same person.
How do Christians think resurrection happens?
Christians believe that life after death will be a miracle given by God, and not just a natural process. The person is resurrected through the gift and grace of God, not just because resurrection is something that souls naturally do.
What can we take from the book of Genesis where it talks of Abraham’s passing?
“Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people”
Not only does this verse emphasise three times that Abraham had lived out the full extent of human life, but it also contains the intriguing phrase ‘he was gathered to his people’. This phrase is used of other prominent men of the Old Testament too. This expression does not refer to the body being returned to family land or a family grave because in several of the Old Testament cases, the deceased was buried far away from the land of his birth. The Bible does not explicitly tell us, but there are certain implications that something of the original man was going to continue and going to join others with whom he was familiar, like loved ones.
How do the Gospel accounts describe Jesus’ resurrection from the dead?
In the gospel accounts, after Jesus was found to be missing from the tomb, Jesus was then seen as a physical person, walking around. There is no indication that this may be a pictorial way of saying something else, such as that Jesus lived on in people’s memories.
What do these Gospel accounts make clear?
The accounts make it clear that Jesus was physically present, after his death, in a way that could be experienced by the senses of those who were there. After Jesus had spent some time on earth in physical form, he ‘ascended into heaven’; it is not clear whether he discarded the resurrected physical body at this point and lived on in some kind of spiritual form or whether he continued in the resurrected body for eternity. Most Christians believe that Jesus continued to live in the transformed spiritual body.
How does Paul try to explain the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15?
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul firmly believed that Christ has risen from the dead, and took this to be the central fact of Christian faith. He was also adamant that the resurrection of Christ was a promise for all Christians that they too would be resurrected and was not unique to Jesus.
What seed metaphor did Paul use to explain how life after death can be understood?
“When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”.
What metaphor does Paul use in 2 Corinthians 5?
Paul uses the metaphor of a tent. “If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be naked”.
The metaphor of the tent carries with it the idea of impermanence in contrast to the house. Paul seems to be echoing a Platonic way of understanding this physical life on this earth as temporary and fragile, in contrast with the permanent solid certainty of life in another realm.
When Adam and Even commit sin, they instantly realise they are baked and run away to hide from God because they are ashamed. Paul seems to be saying that in his life, we are aware of our own sin and have to be ashamed of who we are, but in the afterlife, God will transform us so that we are not in a state of sin any more.
What is heaven?
Christianity teaches that the faithful will go to heaven. Heaven is understood as the place where God lives, seated on his throne and surrounded by angels. Christians don’t believe that God has an address at which he lives, but that God is in all places and at all times.
What is the metaphor of God the Father understood as?
The metaphor of God the Father is used in the context of heaven, where heaven is seen in terms of the family home, the place where an adult might return to stay with his or her father.
What do Catholics believe about heaven?
The Catholic tradition has usually expressed its understanding of heaven in terms of the beatific vision described by Thomas Aquinas.
What do Protestant believe about heaven?
Protestants have tended to understand heaven as an everlasting existence, where people would live in the presence of God, reunited with their loved ones and able to worship God every day.
Who had a problem with heaven being everlasting and what did he say?
Bernard Williams wondered that surely however pleasurable heaven was at the beginning when we first arrived, it would become boring after a while? Whatever we wanted to do, we would be able to do it and perhaps the excitement of anticipation would disappear. Williams argued that part of the pleasure of living is making choices about what we will do with our limited lifespans, and setting ourselves challenging objectives which we might or might not be able to achieve, so that if and when we do achieve them, we feel a sense of pride.
