Self, death and afterlife

Question 1

Resurrection

Answer 1

• Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is central to Christianity- the Gospels insist that Jesus was dead and that the power of God raised him to life on the third day after his death
• He is portrayed as the same and as different, ther e is continuity and change: he bears the marks of crucifixion, cooks for his disciples and eats with them, is touched by them and yet is initially not recognised by Mary Magdelene
• This is an entirely different view of resurrection to that of the raising of Lazarus and others by Jesus where they are revived in order to die at a later point
• The resurrection of Christ is seen as evidence of death, and the power of sin, being defeated by Jesus in the ultimate reversal of the curse of the Fall
• Christians are divided in views of resurrection

Question 2

Dualism and Resurrection of the Soul

Answer 2

• Concept of the soul has its roots both in Judaism and ancient Greek philosophy- God brings Adam to life with his breath (nephesh in Hebrew)
• This word is also associated with ruach- which means both breath and spirit and which is used in Gen 1 as the Spirit of God hovers over the waters
• This breath then is traditionally seen by Christians as spirit or soul, a separate entitiy to the body whilst Jews do not tend to make this distinction
• Plato on World of the Forms- humans have a mortal body and immortal soul, soul survives the death of the body

Question 3

Monism and resurrection of the body

Answer 3

• Augustine argued that original sin from Adam and Eve was passed onto all generations, physically, causing the stain of sin on both body and soul
• The resurrection of Jesus was a bodily resurrection and all human resurrection after death had to be similar
• Fusion of ideas: body dies, soul goes to judgement, at a future point the soul is reunited with the glorified resurrected body
• Catholic Church forbade cremation until 1963 and still to this day recommends burial

Question 4

Spiritual resurrection- body and soul

Answer 4

• True physical resurrection of the body is rejected by Modern Christians in the light of cremations and decomposition
• However, Paul writes at length about what resurrection means in 1 Corinthians 15 and does speak of resurrected bodies
• Paul speaks fo a spiritual body- imperishable, glorious and strong in comparison to the perishable weak earthly body
• analogy of a seed- suggests a degree of continuity but also of considerble difference (identical DNA in a seed but that and the plant look very different)
• Paul is saying that just as one cannot guess the plant from a seed, we cannot anticipate or understand exactly what the resurrection body will look like

Question 5

Judgement

Answer 5

• Protestant Churches- salvation by faith
• Catholic Churcges: Mortal sins (hell), Venial sins (purgatory) and sinless (heaven)
• Orthodox churches believe in particular judgement 40 days after death

Question 6

Heaven and hell as physical realities

Answer 6

• heaven: above the world, celestial city
• hell: below the world, fiery
• Marx: religion is the ‘opium of the people’ as images like these control societal behaviours

Question 7

Heaven and Hell as spiritual realities

Answer 7

• Heaven and hells existence is not above below earth but spiritual states of being with or separated from God
• Purgatory is not a place but a process

Question 8

Heaven and Hell as Psychological realities

Answer 8

• Liberals: no heaven or hell or objective afterlife- about the quality of this life
• Rob Bell on Love Wins: emphasis on this life- Christians should be trying to bring heaven to Earth