Meaning And Purpose Of Life Flashcards
Glorify God and have personal relationship w/ him.
See God as creator and sustainer of au that exists define meaning and purpose of life wl ref. To God.
Let us make mankind in our image … so god created man in his own image’ - genesis 1:31
Two creation stories in genesis - each have different accounts of human beginning of life we.g. 1st creation story ‘let us make mankind in our image’ he saw what he had made and ‘it was very good’ -
humans represent gods qualities so by reproducing and filling the earth they spread the qualities of god. ‘
Godness’ of god is above human understanding and hard to define in lang.
believe god is unknowable as he is transcendent etc. but OT ref. To god’s glory - according to john it was reflected uniquely in Jesus so should reflect god’s glory too like Jesus taught his disciples.
‘…we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the father’ - john 1:14
E.g. tell others and encourage them to become Christians too.
Then second genesis story: ‘formed man of dust from he ground’ - personal relationship - Jesus rel. bet him a dn god reflects gods rel with all humans ‘ father art in me and i in thee’
To prepare for judgement
Second creation story - humans created to be with god, after the creation of the world and all its contents Adam and Eve persuaded by serpent to disobey god so banished from garden - rel. = broken and humans forced to work to survive and pain and death.
But god paid for humanity sin by siffering and Jesus’ death (doctrine of atonement) and reconciliation
‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ 2 Corinthians
To complete recon. Must be judged - PARABLE SHEEP AND GOAT
Bring God’s kingdom on earth
Holistic - key part in Jewish thinking
Believe Jesus inaugurated the kingdom - some believe its an event entirely in the future,linking it to their beliefs in second coming of Jesus and judgement day ref. To Jesus parable of sheep and goats
Others believe that although the kingdom will be fully realised after death, partial reality rn ‘thy kingdom come’ - pray fro Christ to come again
Resurrection
all 4 gospels state on the 3rd day after Jesus’ death - tomb = empty
Christianity teaches Jrose from the dead through gods power - overcame death which no human can do and is symbolic of everlasting life that comes from god - source of all life
Concept of the soul
Judaism: physical body = infused with breath of life which comes from god ‘god breathed .life into his nostrils’ - became nephesh hakkah- ‘living being’
Greek: Plato - world of forms - made up of perfect ideas - heaven - soul is sep. from body at death
Modern thinking: think the soul as the moral and spiritual dimension of human life - distinct from physical body - should is given by god before brith and after death it is returned - dualism
Res. Of flesh - st. Augustine
The fall affected whole of humanity - every human = infected by sin in every aspect of their being (physical, mental and spiritual etc.)
Humans = totally dependent on gods grace to deliver them from eternal punishment
Christs death and res. Shows there’s a poss. For humans if God chooses them
Jesus’ res and ascension were physical and god will perform same miracle for anything created with a soul - physical and spiritual impacts of in = erased
Spiritual res:
Some Christian’s reject physical resurrection : after death body decomposes in grave or cremated so soul survives and lives with God
Believe along the lines of what st. Paul taught e.g. cycle of life through a butterfly analogy - various stages of life cycle = physically diff but same identity
Only one spiritual judgement and final desitination of each soul is decided at time - purgatory loses its force as time of suffering to cleanse the soul would depend on time but no meaning of time as god is transcendent
Physical res:
Difficult concept to accept in modern day as scientists arg. No physical afterlife
Images of heaven and hell = human imagination. Not acc in bible, fills in the unknown
When doctrines dev. More people aware of death than today - persecution of Christian’s and easier to accept physical. Life
Doom paintings in church remind ppl under judgement
All images = physical no spiritual refs. - ppl. Fear death so much went great lengths to avoid hell - winners persuaded to do things for church ‘indulgences’ e.g. give money to rich church
Purgatory
Not explicit in scripture but state soul undergoes in prep. for final universal judgement
‘But after death they undergo purification’ - catechism of Catholic Church
Only ppl that go straight to heaven =children and saints
1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 50-54
Paul believed Jesus death = freed people of sin and death and opened humanity for possiblility of eternal life with god
Res. Of new spiritual and imperishable body - appropriate to new mode of existence
‘The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable’
‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom’
Diff interpretations of heaven, hell and purgatory: Christian teachings
Two types judgement: particular and general
Particular = takes place straight after death and set. The eternal fate of an ind
General = second coming of christ and is upon humanity as a whole
Free from sin = dir3ected immediately to gods presence but those who knowingly reject gods love and committed mortal sin and not repented = hell
Venial sins = purgatory
Heaven, hell and purgatory as physical
Universally held until modern times, saw it as controlling peasants - some fundamentalist Christian’s believe in it but any Protestants who think this way reject purgatory
At end of world, Christ return in glory to judge all humans according to deeds those whoa re holy = heaven and mortal sings = hell
Venial sins = purgatory
Heaven, hell and purgatory as spiritual
Res as spiritual not physical - heaven hell etc as physical. Entities don’t make sense
Modern catholics see spiritual view - heaven = spiritual state adn hell not physical realm of torture - result from deliberate choice of mortal sin w/out repentance and reuse forgiveness
Purgatory doesn’t exist
‘Heaven is the endless moment of love’ - youcat 158
Heaven, hell and purgatory as psychological entities
Reject life after death - lack empirical evidence - bring heaven to earth or heaven hell and judgement = products of human mind
Joy and unhappiness (heaven and hell) = experienced
A life in accordance 2with ones convictions = spiritually fulfilled so ind exp joy and opp for those who live in utter conflict
Objective immortality in process thought
Process theology : god and universe = panentheistic, creatio ex nihilo = incorrect so god not omnipotent- persuades not controls matter
Believe in objective immortality - after death, Ind. beings remain eternally as objects in mind of god - never die
Reject subjective immortality - maj. belief in Christianity - humans exist as thinking subjects with continued exp.
Avoids anthropocentrism but many people reject obj. Immortality as menacing let’s, what sig. in mind of god? And feature of life after death is that innocent suffering = redeemed - if person not Ind anymore then no awareness of this occurring.
