Life After Death Flashcards
Realism
- There are absolute truths
- ‘Correspondence theory of truth’ Things are true if and only if they correspond to the actual state of affairs
Anti-realism
- There are no absolute truths. Relative
- ‘Theory of coherence of truth’ Things are if they fit with other truths in your life. If YOU think he world is flat then it is flat
Jason Whitlark- an age to come
Is the kingdom of God heaven???
- Jesus thought the end times were really close at hand
- Such radically world-rejecting obedience when Jesus is called could only be demanded in the face of an imminent and cataclysmic appearance of the kingdom of God
- Jesus will come back and the kingdom of God will come down
Revelation 21 (Is the kingdom of God heaven???)
- “Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”
- “Now the dwelling of God is with men”
- “There will be no more death or mourning, crying or pain”
- Jesus coming back is a parousia
- There will be a new glorious state
C.H Dodd- something already happened
Is the kingdom of God heaven???
- realised escatology
- The study of end times
- The end is here
- Kingdoms close absolute presence
G.E Ladd- present and future
Is the kingdom of God heaven???
- The kingdom of God, as preached by Jesus, was both present and future
- with the coming of Jesus, God’s salvic reign has been inaugurated but its full realisation was still to happen in the future
- Something that had been partially realised but still needed to be fully realised
Matthew 26:29
“I tell you I will never drink again this wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in my fathers Kingdom”
Matthew 25:34
“Then the King will say to the people on his right ‘come, you that are blessed by my father! Come and posses the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world.”
Mark 1:15
“The right time has come he said and the kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the good news.”
Boethius- A timeless view
- God is changeless and does not exist in time
- He saw ‘the whole simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life’
- Life for God is not like ours which involves change and passing time
- No past present and future
- Unchanging
Boethius strengths and weaknesses
- supports God being omniscient
- Unchanging God
- Sees your entire life and judges your actions carefully
- Free will and consequences for own actions
- Can’t intervene so not omnipotent
- Not personal
Richard Swinburne- an everlasting view
- God exists in all points inside time but does not exist outside of time
Richard Swinburne strengths and weaknesses
- personal and omnipotent
- can intervene
- God would have to abide by the rules of time
- Can’t see all of time at once so how can judge human life
Protestant Christians
Christian attitudes to Heaven
- perfection
- Resurrection of the body and everlasting life
- Physical Heaven
Catholic church
Christian attitudes to Heaven
- ‘Beatific vision’ where you can see God face to face
- Aquinas
- Meeting of souls outside of time and space
- “State of supreme, definitive happiness”
St Paul
Christian attitudes to Heaven
- The body will be transformed and radically changed
- Resurrection of the bodies will be spiritual and glorified and no longer capable of being corrupt or destroyed
- Life on earth=temporary and fragile
Weaknesses of a physical Heaven
- Our bodies would need to be eternal
- We can’t exist outside of time and space. Would have to be inside
- How would our bodies get there???
- size of Heaven???
- God couldn’t be timeless
- What would we look like in Heaven???
Weaknesses os spiritual Heaven
- Being able to recognise other dead people
- you can’t take it literally
- What would a timeless Heaven look like???
Bernard Williams
Christian attitudes to Heaven
- Heaven would be a dull and boring place
- Em was 342. She died at 42 and remained at 42 for 300 years
- Do the same things over and over again
- Weakness=Heaven can’t be both timeless and everlasting, can’t be inside and outside of time and space at the same time
Origen- Spiritual Hell
Christian attitudes to Hell
- Necessary belief in Christ
- Not influenced by God or Satan but interior anguish of being separated from God
- If the wicked are not punished God’s love and goodness is questioned
- You may leave once you have been redeemed
Strengths and weaknesses of Origen
Christian attitudes to Hell
- body doesn’t have to end up in another place so no resurrection
- Possibility of redemption so omnibenevolent
- How can hell not be permanent
- if spiritual how can soul suffer
Catholic interpretation (Christian attitudes to Hell)
- Spiritual
- Eternal for those who have committed mortal sin
- Not something God actively chooses for humanity. Reserved for those who persistently reject goodness until judgement
Dante- physical place
Christian attitudes to Hell
- 9 circles/ layers of hell which gets progressively worse
- What you did (sin) depends on which circle you end up in
- Appropriates action with punishment
- Lucifer has his throne
Augustine- physical place
Christian attitudes to Hell
- permanent
- burned forever
- fully deserved and just because of original sin
Strengths and weaknesses of Augustine
Christian attitudes to Hell
- biblical
- has to be massive
- john Hick=universal salvation
- predestination=known before birth
- no space for forgiveness for those who have not been predestined for heaven
- David Hume=how can a finite sin have an infinite punishment
What did Jesus say to his disciples
Heaven
“My fathers house has many rooms; if that were not so would I have told you that I am going to be there to prepare a place for you”
- comfort and love
Karl Rhaner
Heaven
- the limited span of our earthly lives gives them their meaning and used it as a reason to support the view of a timeless afterlife
Purgatory
- Enter for a period of time where refined by fire so pure to then go to heaven
- The amount of time you spend in purgatory equates to how much you have sinned
John Hick
Purgatory
- Intermediate state to bridge the ‘gap’ between the individuals imperfection at the end of his life
- Continuation of the ‘person making process’
Karl Rahner
Purgatory
- Not a horrible place of pain
- Metaphor for the soul’s greater awareness
Ambrose
- A place where the souls wait for judgement and has a foretaste of what’s in store for them (heaven or hell)
Origen
Purgatory
- Probationary school to experience to develop and perfect itself
Gregory of Nyssa
Purgatory
- Purifying purpose
- Can be cleansed of sin to enter heaven
- What’s the point of being good in this life when we are cleansed anyway
Calvin’s TULIP
- Total depravity
- Unconditional election
- Limited atonement
- Irresistible Grace
- Perseverance of the saints
Total depravity
- God made Adam totally depraved in sin as judgement
- everyone is a sinner so we all should go to hell=from original sin
- All human nature is poisoned by depravity
Unconditional election
- Everyone is either destined to Heaven or hell
- double predestination of the elect or the damned
Limited atonement
- Christ died only for the elect, those predestined to Heaven
- Jesus only died for the elect
Irresistible grace
- When God calls his elect no-one can resist the sovereign power of God’s grace
- if you are chosen you cannot reject God’s grace you must accept it
Perseverance of the saints
- Once saved no one can fall back into unbelief
- God sustains he elect to the end
- if you are chosen you can’t be unchosen
Problems of Calvinism
- Predestination=No free will (perseverance of the saints) From Adam and Eve who had free will
- Limited atonement=Didn’t Jesus die for everyone
- Total Depravity=look at original sin and the fall literally (we are all seminally present in Adams loin) Rousseu and kant disagree
- Double predestination=God is meant to be all loving
Limited election
- Augustine
- Calvin
Unlimited offer of salvation
- Biblical and Karl Barth
- God chose to send Jesus to die for everyone (he was elected)
- everyone could have eternal life
- the sheep and the goat parable
- “For God so love the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
Universal salvation
- John Hick
- We go though a vale of soul making process to perfect ourselves for heaven
Bertrand Russell
- Just human wishful thinking
- Would you want witch hunters (evil people) to live forever
- the world would be better understood without God
Richard Dawkins
- you only live on after death in the memories of others
- pass on your genes
- Belief in life after death is part of our survival mechanism (meme)
Salvation through Grace
- Ephesians 2:8-10
- God’s grace is offered And saves you not the works of your own
- our faith
- limited salvation because grace could only be offered to particular people
- unlimited salvation because grace could be offered to everyone but may not chose it
Salvation through grace and works
- the rich man and Lazarus
- those who suffer in life will be rewarded after death
- rich man in hell as didn’t help Lazarus
- hell is a physical place with physical pain “in great pain in this fire”
- nothing between heaven and hell like purgatory
The poor man was saved through faith but the rich man was punished for not helping the poor man
Salvation through works
- Matthew 25:31-44
- The parable of the sheep and the goat=when you help other people you will go to heaven
- right belief is orthodoxy (belief in God)
- right practise is orthopraxy (works)
