Self, death and the afterlife Flashcards
Glorify god and have a personal relationship with him
- Old Testament talks about God’s glory
- John’s gospel - God’s glory is reflected in Jesus
- They were built in the image of God so they should reflect God’s glory (Genesis 1:27)
- Jesus taught to give glory to God
-Living a life which glorifies God means they’ll experience the kingdom of God irl as well
Prepare for judgement
- Supreme act of reconcilliation - God restored the relationship , through the death of Jesus
-Final act of reconcillation = judgement that all humans face
-Parable of sheep and goats - how people failed to respond to those in need
-Heaven is seen as a reward for good behavior - justification by works
God’s kingdom on earth
-Key part of Jewish thinking
-Jewish rabbis believed that the kingdom of god is related to the keeping of the Torah
-Some Christians believe it’s a future event linking to the belief of judgement day and second coming of Jesus
-Others believe that the kingdom will be fully realised after death and is a partial reality now.
- Humans are called to work actively for the realisation of the kingdom and justice.
Personal approach:
- those working for the realisation of the kingdom see it as giving glory to God - creates a personal relationship with God
Resurrection - concept of the soul
- Early church - Christians combined Jewish ideas with Neo-Platonism
Jewish thinking -
- Old testament - 2 Hebrew words for soul - nepesh and ruach - principle of life
- Nepesh - given by God to Adam. Linked with heart
- Teaching of Jesus, word often used with heart and mind - inner self
Resurrection - Greek thinking
Plato thought there were 2 spheres of reality
- Humans have only a partial understanding of reality and truth
- World of Forms
- Even thought the body is gone at death, soul is immortal so after death it returns back to the world of forms before reincarnation
Resurrection - Modern thinking
- Christians believe the soul is the moral and spiritual dimension of human life - distinct from the physical body
- Soul is given by God before birth and given back after death - dualism
- Some think of humans in a holistic sense, physical and mental/spiritual dimensions inextricably linked and both gone at death.
- ‘Psyche’ makes a person an individual
Resurrection of Jesus
- Life after death was thought of in Jewish thinking in the Old Testament
- For Christians they believe this was from the start - forms basis of christian hope of life after death
- all 4 gospels said tomb was empty
- Same but different -
not subject to human
limitation- Jesus conquered
death which allowed
for eternal life after
death for humans
- Jesus conquered
Interpretations of judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory
- Nicene creed sets out belief in judgement and afterlife
- Catholic church believes:
- 2 types of
judgement - particular and general- Particular - judgement straight after death; determines eternal fate
- General - happens at the second coming of christ - free from sin = go to eternal heaven
- sent to hell = eternal seperation from God
- Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory can be looked at as physical, spiritual and psychological realities
- Particular - judgement straight after death; determines eternal fate
Physical
- Held in west until modern times
- Fundamentalists Christians believe in it any Protestants who reject it is purgatory
- End of the world - jesus will return in glory to judge all humans according to deeds
- Holy - taken to heaven
- Committed mortal sins - go to hell to suffer
- Venial - period of cleansing - enables them to enter heaven
Spiritual
- believe in ressurection as spiritual = ideas of judgement, heaven, hell as physical doesnt make sense
- modern catholic thinking = heaven , hell and purgatory as spiritual instead of physical. View of judgement similar to eastern churches - two fold judgement
- Heaven = spirtual state
- hell isnt a physical realm of torture
- purgatory isnt a place
Psychological realities
- Reject any belief in life after death - lacks empirical evidence
- think of bringing heaven on earth
- some believe judgement, heaven and hell are products of the human mind
- Those whose life is inner conflicct - lead to psychotherapy.
