The After Life

• Parousia


  used in Christianity as the second coming of Christ
• Particular Judgement


  judgement for each person at the point of death
• parable 


  story to highlight a moral message
• universalism 


  view that all people will be saved
• unlimited election 


  the view that all people are called to salvation, but only a few will be saved
• Original Sin


  state of wrongdoing in which people are born with sin because of Adam and Eve
• Limited Election


  view that God chooses only a small number of people for heaven
• Election (theological sense)


  predestination, chosen by God for heaven or hell
• Purgatory 


  place where people go, temporarily after death to be cleansed of sin before they're fit to live with God
• Beatific vision 


  face-face encounter with God
• Resurrection 


  living on after death in a glorified physical form in a new realm
• Disembodied experience


  existing without a physical body
• General Judgement


  God’s judgement at the end of time
• Gehenna (Hades)


  referred to by Jesus as a place of fire sinners are sent to
• New Earth 


  view of heaven that at the end of time God will restore the earth to its pre-fall state where the resurrected bodies of the righteous will live forever
• Sheol (Hades)


  afterlife that the Jews believe in where the souls of all people go after death of the body. The Greek word for Sheol is Hades
• "Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full years; and he was gathered to his people"


  Genesis 25:8 New International Version
• "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt"


  Daniel 12:2 New International Version
• Christian teaching about the afterlife: pt 1

  • there is life after death
  • Christians reject the idea of reincarnation
  • believe that there will be a form of resurrection
  • the idea of resurrection is seen with the Resurrection Of Jesus
  • also the idea of eternal life is seen through Genesis 25:8 and Daniel 12:2
  • although not prominent in Jewish scriptures -> there are subtle references to it
• Analyses of Genesis 25:8

  It shows that Abraham lived the full extent of human life. But the phrase of "gathered to his people" -> does it mean being buried in his family ground or with his family. Or could it mean mean resurrected in an after life. The Bible does not tell.
• Analyses of Daniel 12:2


  Daniel is the last book in Jewish scripture, written around 165 BC. Encouragement for Jews who were being persecuted. Told Jews to stay faithful and obedient to God = seemed like the solution to God's injustice in this universe.
• Christian teaching about the afterlife: pt 2

  • Influenced by the Greeks
  • Plato influenced Christian teaching as he had dualist ideas about the body and the soul
  • Life after death for Christians is much clearer than Judaism as seen by Jesus' resurrection after the crucifixion
  • resurrection will happen to people
  • Jesus' physical resurrection -> then ascended after 40 days
  • spiritual resurrection
• But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

  1 Corinthians 15:35-38 New International Version
• So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, 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.

  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

  1 Corinthians 15: 42 - 44
• For we know that 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 found naked.

  2 Corinthians 5:1-3
• Resurrection: pt 1

  • resurrection is the most important and significant event in Christianity -> Paul was adamant that resurrection was the central fact of Christian Faith
  • Jesus is resurrected after the crucifixion
  • Augustine and Paul believe in a physical resurrection
• But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith


  1 Corinthians 15: 12-19
• For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

  1 thessalonians 4:14
• For we know that 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 found naked.

  2 Corinthians 5:1-3
• Cannibal Problem for Physical Resurrection:

  • What if one person cannibalised another person so that their dead body became part of the cannibal’s body? Such cases generate the puzzle of how both bodies, that of the cannibal and the cannibalised, could possibly both be raised
  • God is omnipotent and will solve this
  • logically impossible for God to resurrect two people from the diffused parts of their earthly body if some parts of each of their bodies belong to both of them. It is logically impossible for one part that belonged to two bodies to be used in the resurrection of more than one body
• John Hick believed that God created a replica body after death and dismissed the idea of a seperate soul
• "to such a body as would reconstitute a man identifiable with the man who died"


  Peter Geach -> souls must be reunified
• Analyses of 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, 42-44


  Lives mysteries about what is the physical body, idea that the body will change and transform radically. Although not clear how
• 2 Corinthians 5:1-3


  the idea of the tent being replaced by a sturdier house, shows that the bodies we live in are not our true body. Physical life is temporary and fragile. Shows that Paul believes in this life we understand that we have sinned, but in the after life God will transform us
• Ideas Central in Christianity:

  1. some form of bodily afterlife
  2. some person who died is in the after life
  3. the afterlife is a miracle from God
• "all man's soul is in all his body and again all of it is in any part of his body in the same way as God is in the world"

  Aquinas Summa Theologia
• Aquinas and the afterlife:

  • inspired by both Aristotle and Plato
  • believed that all living things had a soul => came from Aristotle's idea of the hierarchy of the soul ---> the human soul can reason and reason to follow God
  • the ability to reason came from an organ although not physical
  • had Plato's view that the soul lives on after death
  • CREATED THE IDEA OF BEATIFIC VISION
  • perfect happiness through the Beatific Vision -> faith replaced by Knowledge of God
• Beatific Vision: positives

  • can't get bored -> it is timeless, and can vary from person to person although it is completely satisfying
  • influenced by Plato => final end for humans was the contemplation of unchangeable goodness
  • no need to wonder how other people will be in heaven
• Beatific Vision: negatives

  • how can it be the same person who was on earth -> the person lived a physical life and therefore many physical characteristics make up their life
  • also Aquinas believed that the soul and body made the person up -> the body may not be retained
• For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known


  1 Corinthians 13:12 -> Beatific Vision