Self, Death and the Afterlife

Three main purposes of Christian life

• to glorify God and have a personal relationship with him

• To prepare for judgement

• To bring about Gods kingdom on earth

Creation in Gods image (glorify)

• God is the creator and sustainer of all existence

• Humans are created Imago Dei (in the image of God)

• Humans represent Gods qualities

• Based on creation story in Genesis 1

The concept of glory

• glory → describe Gods essential quality

• The prophet Isiah connects this to life’s purpose

• Isiah “whom i formed and made”

Ways Christian’s glorify God

• represent and spread Gods glory

• Their lives and actions

• Tell people about God

• Make their lives more God-like

• Engage in worship

• Through visible good works

Building a personal relationship with God

• the relationship between Jesus and God the father serves as the morsel for every humans relationship with God

• John → “they also must be in us” “they may all be one”

• Communication through prayer

• Studying the Bible to know God better

• Following teachings of Jesus

• Modeling their lives on the life of Jesus

The fall and the need for reconciliation (prepare for judgement)

• Adam & Eve disobeyed God

• This broke the relationship between humans and God, introducing work, pain and death into human experience

• Atonement → Jesus’ death can make up for human sin, reconciliation

• To complete Gods plan for reconciliation, humans must face judgement of their lives

• Parable of the sheep and the goats

• Acts “ he will judge the world”

The purpose of preparing for judgement

• to be welcomed into Gods eternal presence

• Liberal Christian → do not accept a literal Judgement Day, shows importance about human existence

• John Hicks Soul-Making Theodicy → agreeing with Irenaeus, evil is not a flaw but an essential part of Gods plan, we are incomplete with the potential to achieve likeness with God

To bring about Gods kingdom on earth

• Gods kingship over all creation on earth as well as in heaven following Gods laws

• Eschatological view → this hope relates to the end of time, where sin will be eliminated

• Active view → responsibility to the pro towards creating perfection on earth now

Jesus as the inaugurator oh the Kingdom of God

• Jesus’ coming made it possible to imagine Gods kingdom on earth

• Christian’s must: Repent all that is not god-like and work to bring about the qualities of God on earth

Qualities of God’s kingdom

• Peace

• Justice

• Freedom from want

Evaluation of the relative importance of these three purposes

• Prepare for judgement: earning a reward, motivates by fear or punishment then genuine desire to follow Gods laws, or desire to do right

• Personal relationship with God: contemplative life, working through study, worship towards a transformative experience of God

The resurrection

Jesus rose from the dead, through Gods power, Jesus overcame death itself and appears full of life from God. This makes eternal life available to everyone through resurrection

The concept of the soul

• draws from both Jewish and Ancient Greek tradition and philosophy

• Jewish → everyone that breathed has Gods spirit within them as life comes from God.

• Nephesh → Jesus belief, translated to ‘soul’ meaning the existence a creature has from receiving Gods breath of life.

• Plato

Plato

• Believed in two modes of existence:

• 1. The physical world we observe

• 2. A deeper reality called world of Forms

• World of forms: contains perfect ideas, everything in the universe is a perfect idea in the world of forms

What did Plato believe about the soul?

• separates from the body at death

• Goes into the world of forms

• Is reincarnated into a new body

Dualism

• physical body and a spiritual soul

• What Plato believes

Early Christian synthesis of the soul

• a baby receives a soul from god before birth

• The soul is the inner existence of a person

• At death it leaves and returns to god

Modern belief of the soul (Freud)

• not ‘soul’ but ‘psyche’ → it’s a source of moral judgement and reason

Resurrection of the flesh → Augustine

• souls were stained with sin from the fall

• Bodies were tainted with sinfulness

• Bodily, physical resurrection → where both spiritual and physical effects of sin would be removed

• God could wise an earthly body to become a heavenly body

Catholic teaching on the soul

• Catechism explains that after death the soul depresses from the body, the soul goes to meet god while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body

Spiritual resurrection

• the body decays but the soul lives on with God

• 1 Corinthians “it is raised a spiritual body”

• Paul’s teaching “it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body” 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:44

“ it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body”

Paul insisted that resurrection is possible, Paul taught that if the Corinthians did not believe in resurrection, their faith is Jesus was pointless

Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth to intervene in disputes that risked splitting the community

Three reasons for the importance of 1 Corinthians 15:44

1. Early Christian theology (shows the development of Christian thought at an early stage when people who remembered Jesus were alive)

2. Foundation of Christian teaching (basis for Christian teaching on resurrection)

3. Hope during persecution

Psychological resurrection

Profound and often sudden transformation in an individuals mental or emotional state. Can be used to describe mental illness as living the psychological resurrection on earth. Feel as if they have been “reborn” into a new mental state that could be negative or positive

Particular judgement

The belief that God judges the soul immediately upon death, deciding its eternal destiny

General (final) judgement

The belief in a universal judgement at the end of time (the Parousia) when Christ returns and judges all of humanity together

Heaven as a spiritual reality

• An eternal relationship and communion with God

• Based on Jesus’ physical resurrection (Luke)

• Revelation 21 → “New Jerusalem” coming down out of heaven

• Traditional biblical narrative

Heaven as a spiritual reality

• An eternal relationship and communion with God

• Popularized by Thomas AQUINAS → uninterrupted view of Gods essence

• Avoids the scientific reasoning against a physical reality

Heaven as a psychological reality

• A state if supreme mental fulfillment, peace, and self-awareness

• Heaven as a symbol for integration if the self and human potential

• John Hick → quality of live lived in harmony with the divine rather than a location

Hell ad a physical reality

• a literal, physical place of endless torment

• Matthew “weeping and gnashing of teeth”

• Supported by Augustine that physical fire is necessary to punish the resurrected body and soul

• Moral deterrent, but goes against omnibenevolence

Hell as a spiritual reality

• the absolute, eternal separation of the soul from God

• Hell is not a torture chamber designed by God but a self-chosen state

• C.S Lewis “the doors of hell are locked on the inside”

Hell as a psychological reality

• an inner state of mental torment, despair, guilt

• Hell is the spiritual and psychological bathe we create for ourselves

• Explains why the threat of hell feels so real to human experience today, however orthodox critics argue that reducing hell to a mental state undermined Gods objective of justice

Purgatory

Primarily a Roman Catholic doctrine, transitional state of spiritual cleansing and purification for souls who die in a state of grace, but aren’t holy enough to enter the immediate presence of God

Catholic interpretation of purgatory

• historically : actual purging fire

• Modern : spiritual or psychological struggle to achieve moral and spiritual perfection

Protestant view of purgatory

Mainly reject purgatory, justification by faith in christ is all that is required for immediate entry into heaven