3. Self, Death And Afterlife Flashcards
(24 cards)
Meaning and purpose of life
Glorify relationship with god
Prepare for judgement
Bring about gods kingdom on earth
Glorify god and have a personal relationship with him
Christians believe humans cannot know the nature of god (transcendent and unknowable)
See god as creator and sustainer of all that exists and define meaning and purpose of life with reference to god
In first creation story, he said ‘let us make an in our image’ (humans are gods image in the created order, represent his qualities to everything else god has made and to one another, purpose is to reproduce, fill the earth and spread these qualities)
Goodness of god is beyond all human understanding so qualities are hard to define in language (glory is essential quality)
To represent god is to glorify him, influencing Christians in a number of ways: show gods flory in own life and actions, tell others and encourage to become Christian so they can glorify god too, make own lives more god-like, draw attention to his qualities, engage in worship which draws on and refelects himself glory
Jesus sums it up in Sermon on the Mount: ‘let your light shine before men, that they at see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven’
In second creation story, god is intimately involved with the physical act of creation, showing care and affection for the individual created, making animals to be companions and a partner for him
God walks with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, leading to the belief that another purpose is to share a a personal relationship with god (nurture it by glorifying god)
To build a close relationship it influences Christian’s to: communicate through prayer, aim to know god better by studying the bible, try and follow Jesus teachings as they believe god can be known through Jesus, model loves on the life on jesus
Prepare for judgement
Humans were created to be with god, after original sin committed by Adam and Eve, they were banished from the garden and the close relationship between humans and god was broken (alienation), forced into a world where they had to work to survive and pain and death were a part of human experience
Teaches that god paid for sin of humanity by suffering, as original purpose of creation was to spend eternity in gods presence
Jesus made up for human sins (doctrine of atonement - reconciliation - ‘god is in Christ reconciling the world himself’)
To complete gods plan for reconciliation,humans must face judgement of their loves at the end of time
In parable of the sheep an the goats, Jesus taught followers they would be judged according to how they treated those less fortunate than themselves (‘for when I was hungry and you gave me food I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothes me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’)
All those who have dies will be raised and judged, those who treated others with compassion and justice will be welcomed into gods eternal presence, those who didn’t will be forever excluded form god
Liberal view on preparing for judgement
May liberal Christian’s don’t accept this dramatic narrative of judgement day as factually accurate, argue it exists to show important truth about purpose of human existence
Believe that some form of eternal existence in the presence of god is the outcome of striving for moral perfection
For some judgment happens in responses to Christ in this life and being born of spirit and living eternal life is a quality of life in this life
Hicks approach to judgement
Soul-making theodicy - existence of evil in the world is not a flaw in gods perfect creation but essential part of gods plan
God created humans as incomplete beings with potential to achieve a likeness with go, existence of evil allows humans to grow and develop virtues, if god made humans with ready made virtues this wouldn’t be real moral goodness
God made humans choose good or evil so good virtues are those gained through freely overcoming temptations and trials (evil is essential in developing moral perfection and purpose of life is soul making which evil is essential I
Process of overcoming evil continues until everyone reached gods kingdom, he wouldn’t send anybody to hell
Bring about gods kingdom on earth
1 and 2 focus on the individual
More holistic view that humans are a part of the whole fabric of creation and purpose if everything in creation is to bring about gods work by bringing about gods kingdom on earth
When Jesus refers to the kingdom of god, he is linking the kingship of god over al creation to the possibility that there will come a time when all the created order on earth and in heaven, will follow gods laws (‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven’)
For some Christian’s this hope is eschatological (relates to end of time), believe one day Jesus willl return to earth in glory, sin and death will be eliminated
Others see the whole purpose of existance as a responsibility to work towards creating a perfect earth, not only build relationship with god, develop virtues but also bring conditions of a perfectt heaven into own community and world
Jesus is referred as inaugurator of the kingdom, Christian’s believe they must first all repent and then bring about qualities of god to fruition on earth
Christians who see purpose in this was don’t seek these things for themselves but for all those who are victims of conflict, injustice and poverty, don’t prepare themselves for god to intervenes and focus on brining about these qualities as gods stewards (quakers - religious society of friends)
Evaluating relative importance of these purposes of life
PREPARING FOR JUDGEMENT - may imply being good in order to earn a reward, motivated by fear of punishment as opposed to do right for right sake (impossible to know how god would view these people -most would want to b motivated by self interest and desire to follow gods laws)
GLORIFY AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP - may result in a contemplative life, long journey of prayer, contemplation, leaving to one slide all that might make this journey less direct (perhaps in a monastic community), some may focus on Christian mysticism (working though study, worship and contemplation) towards a hoped for transformative experience of god
None are mutually exclusive, many work to bring about gods kingdom on earth while developing own virtues and a closer relationship with god
For some, doing gods will or being a good person is an end in itself
For others what they do has a purpose and focus in line with own circumstances and abilities
Resurrection
Concept of the soul
Resurrection of the flesh as expressed in the writing of Augustine
Spiritual resurrection
Significance of 1 Corinthians 15:42 and 50-54
Resurrection of Jesus
All four gospels say on the third day after his death that the tomb was empty
When he had risen , he was different but his disciples still knew it was Jesus
Was human but could appear and disappear at will and followers didn’t recognise him during long conversations
Jesus is symbolic for Christian’s of the everlasting life that comes form god, source of all lives
His resurrection shows that death (consequence of sins in the world) can be overcome through power of god, brought possibility of eternal life for everyone
Jewish thinking
Psychical body is nursed with the ‘breath of life’ that comes form god, breathed life into Adam so that he became nephesh hayyah (‘a living being’), or Jews, everything that breathes has spirit of god within them
ruach - similar to Greek psyche ‘spirit’ of god was moving over the primeval waters during creation
OT Jews didn’t believe in life after death, period leading u to time of Jesus had some believe that god was eternal and loft that comes form him might not end at death, something of the person might live on after
Greek thinking - plato and the world of the form
Believed in the psychical world (we see around us)
World of the forms (reflection of deeper reality)
Made up of perfect ideas and in the physical world we see imperfect copies of these perfect ideas
Human soul superheated from the body at death and goes to the world of the forms and there contemplates the form of the good (as close as platonic got to the idea of god), before reincarnating into the physical world in a human womb (dualism - soul is a dualistic idea)
Humans have two aspects - physical perishable body and spiritual immortal soul, soul preexisted human life and is eternal in to own right
Our ability to know what things are comes from the soul belonging to the world of the forms, familiar with perfect ideas of each thing and is able to recognise imperfect copies in the physical word
Modern thinking
Jewish ideas of Jesus and his followers and platos ideas and his later followers (neo-platonists) were widely accepted in 1/2 centuries CE
Jewish and Greek ideas of the soul for Christian’s to link them together, believed baby receives soul from go before birth, inhabited body during life and left after death to return to god, soul was moral and spiritaaal dimensions of human existance and the source of humankind’s response to god
Some still see people as dualistic body and soul, some say soul is what makes a person who they are and some see no existance before conception and no life beyond death
McDoughall conducted a study of weighing dying terbeculisis patients and after death they weighte 21 grams less (weight of would), this is shown to not be true as there is no weigh loss after death and few believe soul is something that can be measures scientifically
Freys used psyche instead of soul (made up of id, ego and superego), life before conception or after death aren’t part of study of psychology
Resurrection of the flesh according to the writings of Augustine
Resurrection made it possible from all people to have life after death, overcoming death of the cross restored to humankind resurrection and eternal life that had been lost through original sin
Sin caused by the fall of Adam and Eve, effected al humans being born (soul tainted with sin), physically, emotionally, mentally ad spiritually
If resurrection offered hope, it must have be bodily, physical resurrection where hysical and spiritual effects of sin would be removed
Jesus resurrection was physical, ascending to heaven in a physical form
If possible to happen to Jesus, god can perform that same miracle for anything that has a soul
Spiritual resurrection
Idea of immortal soul is not biblical and derives from Greek thought
Some reject that resurrection is physical, say body rots away in a grave or destroyed by creamation, elements of the body are retuned to nature and reused in such a way that resurrection of the flesh is nonsensical
Believe that when body dies, soul lives on with god (‘it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body’ 1 Corinthians 15:44), indicated resurrected body is different from the one that died
Some say Paul’s words imply there will be a physical aspect of resurrection, soul resurrected into a new physical body that had no distance on earth
Others say he is describing a miracle change that will come over body to become perfect and no longer subject to aging r decay
What age and condition will physical body be resurrected (same as death or same ageless form?)
Significance of 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 and 50-54
In first letter to people of Corinth, Paul’s purpose was to intervene in the disputes that risked splitting the community
Pauls explanation focuses on implications that ressurection is possible, if Corinthians don’t believe in resurrection, their faith in Jesus has been pointless (raising of Christ is the beginning of the resurrection of all human kind)
Written 20-25 years after the death of Jesus showing development of Christian’s thought at an early stage (people who remember Jesus are still alive)
Paul’s certainty of Jesus being raised physically from dead is used to argue that belief in the resurrection is both rational and essential for emerging church
Forms basis for Christian teachings on resurrection, start of a new relationship with humankind and god (no longer damaged by sin of Adam)
Death wasn’t end, hope for eternal life in the presence of golf alongside the risen ascended Christ
Provided hope during errors of persecution that the church would soon experience and a theological explanation for martyrdrom (under Roman emperor Nero blaming Christian’s or a fire that destroyed large parts of Rome)
Would have been easy for Christian’s to give it their faith rather than risk imprisonment, belief in resurrection to eternal life was attractive rather than giving up their faith, without martyrs Christianity might have died
Interacting influences on resurrection
Burials rituals underline importance of the body in defining a person, Egyptians practised mummification for the spirit I to return to, thinking about importance of person, Christian’s concepts of bodily resurrections make sense (as seen in teachings of St Augustines and Catholic Church)
Until 1863, cremation was forbidden in the Catholic Church as it was seen as a statement of disbelief in resurrection of the body, accepted depended on it not being such a statement and burial still recommended
Christian art shows body resurrection, (examples of Jesus and dead in general resurrected psychically), without physical body its impossible for resurrected beings to experience physical delights of heaven or torment of hell
Resurrection a spiritual reality influenced by the Greek concept of the soul, through teachings of plato and his followers, in turn influenced body/soul dualism of Descartes (believed he proved philosophically that mind must survive the destruction of its body
Christian’s have different ideas on nature of resurrection depending on which influences are most dominant in their own church traditions and their own thinking
Protestant churches are more likely to support idea of cremation, may be on the grounds that resurrection is spiritual so method of disposing body is less important than marinating a general respect for the dead person
Influenced tradition of martyrdom (gave witness or testimony and came to mean those who testified to the truth of the Christian gospel with great likelihood of being killed for it), general belief that god being all powerful would even reconstitute those martyrs burned at the stake
Different interpretations of judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory
Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory as physical, spiritual or psychological realities
Objective immortality in process though
Classic idea of judgment
At the end of time, dead who have been sleeping in their graved will be awoken by the sound of a trumpet which would herald the end of all things, Christ would come again in glory adn would be seated Ona throne surrounded by angels
Each individual would be judged according to their deeds written in the book of life
Those judged holy spiel gain immediate enterence to heaven, led there by angels
Those judged sinful would’ve be sent to suffer burning, pain adn torture
If sins were forgivable (mortal sins) they would spend eternity sufffering in hell tormented by demons
If sins were forgivable (venial sins) they would undergo a period of suffering and pain to purge them of the evil state (purgatory) and after admitted to heaven, catholic teaching is clccear that purgatory is a state that soul undergoes in preparing for final universal judgment
Orthodox Church view of judgement
40 days after death there will be a particular judgement of each individual Christian, when god will decide where the soul will wait until the second coming of Christ
There will then be a general judgement where dead bodies will rise and Christ through gods grace will grant salvation, although deeds of individuals will be taken into account
Judgment of those nt Christian isn’t defined in orthodox theorlogy, thought they will be judged with mercy
Judgment, heaven, hell and purgatory as physical
Throught ost of Christian history they were seen as physical realities (once raised the body would experience delights of heaven or pain of purgatory and hell)
People were more aware of reality of death when doctrine were developed than today, during persecution by romans, they were tortured and killed in painful ways, and after it ended, pain, death and suffering were part of normal life (women often died due to childbirth and men from injuries and infection)
Lived at a time when crime often led o physical punishment by courts (death, mutilaton of eyes, limbs, testicles, imprisonment) to deter people from crime by making them fear consequences
When taught bible with desciption of pain and suffering, believed that it was literal and physical, church hoped that by focusing on the suffering of sinners after death it would deter people from committing individual sins
Important during Black Death, which church said was a punishment from god for humans, essential to repent and avoid sinning in the future
Heaven is shown as a place with no physical suffering or pain, enough to eat, no labour or sorrow (in life this is product of wealth and often found where the rich lived in comfort) and showed as a walled city
Presented in paintings to remind people they were under judgment (hell showed flames and demons torturing the unhappy and damned - different punishments for all 7 deadly sins)
Outcome was that people feared death so much they were prepared to go to great lengths to avoid going hell and reduce time spent in purgatory
Church developed teachings of indulgences (gave sinners opportunity to acquire virtues of the risen saints by going on pilgrimages, vistiting and touching relics and asking donations to church - enormous ersonal cost out if fear of purgatory)
Overtime abuse of indulgences to fund an expensive building project in Rome is one thing that led Luther to protests (Protestant reformation)
Judgment, heave, hell and purgatory as spiritual
In modern thinking resurrection in bodily form isn’t held widely, individual bodies may be resurrected tat the end of time (counter intuitive), leading to idea that resurrection of the dead is a spiritual reality then so must be final judgement (concepts of them have to be adjusted to fit idea that spiritually resurrected souls may be subject to external life with god in heaven or eternal suffering apart from him in hell)
Qualities must be spiritual (heaven - not material, joy peace, love, hell - spiritual loss, eternal absence of god, no source of goodness or joy, endless sorrow and spiritual pain)
For some idea of individual and final judgment are in conflict, since for god time has no meaning, no difference for him when individual dies or end of time itself, so only one judgment at time of individual death and final destination for each s decided at that time
Leaving bodies and physical reality behind, afterlife starts with judgment adn eternity in spiritual heaven or hell, purgatory looses force in this view, since a time of suffering to cleanse soul would depend don time having some meaning in eternity
Judgment, heaven, hell and purgatory as psychological
Many find notions of resurrection, judgment and eternal joy or suffering outdated, no empirical evidence of existance after death so idea that humans behaviour in physical life can make a difference to experience after death is pointless
For some life is reinterpreted in terms of quality of living this life (this ca bring about heaven on earth)
Alternative view for many liberal Christian’s is that they may be psychological realities (‘mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or hell of heaven’) - view is wrong as its by a fallen angle who fraught against god and expelled from heaven, concepts can be understood not as supernatural, external process but as part of psychology of human mind
Freud suggested human psyche was governed by conscious and unconscious urges conflict between aspects of psyche can lead to mental suffering he thought that religious belief was a result of neurosis (student Jung said religious or spiritual experience was essential as an individual develops towards a full realisation of who they are)
Both joy and suffering can be experienced as psychological realities, person who is spiritually fulfilled experiences contempt and one who is spiritually in conflict experience suffering (psychological hell)
Escape possible through therapy or treatment, psychoanalysis helps recognise and confront causes of inner conflict and help in recovery of psychological wholeness
Self reflection and small incremental changes may help leave behind self destructive behaviour (may restore those who find themselves in a state of psychological hell through a process that allows them to seperate from things that cause them to duffer a and offer possibility of psychological wholeness)
Objective immortality in process thought
Process theology rejects idea that god created the universe out of nothing and instead say that both u nieces and god are uncreated and have always existed (reality is then both mental and physical, made up of both mind and matter)
God and universe exists panentheistcally - universe is in god and god is in universe, those Christian’s who believe god created the universe out of nothing are wrong (according to PT)
Argue god persuaded chaotic matter into order and foresaw that eventually could become so orderly it would form intelligent beings such as ourselves, means god cannot be all powerful as matter was persuaded adn therefore has ability to resist gods persuasion
God and universe exist necessarily, (god is soul of universe, experiences of the entire universe are integrated into the mind of god) since they exist panentheistically, means god must experience every singe process process within the universe (this is belief that dictates how process theologians think about life after death - objective immortality)
OM - after death, all individual entities in the universe remains forever as forever as ‘objects’ in the mind of god, so in that sense they never die, actions, thoughts and ideas continue to exist in detail as objects in gods memory and since god is eternal we are also (objectively not subjectively)
Subjective immortality - beings such as ourselves have potential to exist as ‘irreducible subjective units of experience’ (when we died we will exist always as a way of thinking, felling subjects with our own thought processes, memories and continued experiences and no one else will experience them for us, most Christian’s believe in SI
Evaluating OI and SI
Most Christian’s appear to believe SI for humans and not other animals (case for most catholics who don’t think animals have souls)
OI gets rid of anthropocentric idea that only humans have sufficient value in gds eyes to be granted immortality after death, humans being seen as ore valuable than the rest of creation is seen by some as wishful thinking, within PT entities have OI, all are valued forever and for their own sakes which seems reasonable and fair
Some people think that idea of OI is a meaningless form of words, after death ‘I’ am no longer conscious and cannot have subjective experiences about anything, how can it matter to ‘me’ that ‘I’ am no longer objectively present in gods memory and
In Christian terms, satisfactory answers to the problem of evil includes belief that those who suffer injustice in thi life will have their suffering redeemed in the next, but if the next is merely an objective form of immortality, I will not exist subjectively to know that my suffering has been redeemed, so in reality, as far as ‘I’ am concerned it will never be redeemed
