Death and the afterlife
Plato, Descartes, Aquinas, Ward, Swinburne all believe the soul is
separate from the body and will survive after the body’s death
Christianity teaches that people have souls which are capable of
surviving the death of the body. After death, people are resurrected, and
live on in a new dimension, some with God in heaven
Different interpretations of the soul and ideas about heaven
Although the Bible does present teaching about life after death, it’s not
always clear how this should be interpreted. Literally or metaphorically?
The Bible makes reference to hell and to eternal punishment –
incompatible with the notion of a God of infinite love and forgiveness?
No justice without punishment
Although the Bible implies we have free will to choose our moral actions
and beliefs, there is also the idea of an omniscient God who knows even
before we are born which choices we will make and which choices he
has made for us
Christian teaching about the afterlife - Resurrection:
There is life after death in a new kind of existence
Reject reincarnation
They also reject Platonic ideas that the soul leaves the body and
continues in a disembodied way
Instead, they believe that the soul will be given a new, spiritual, glorified
physical body in which to continue to live after death – resurrection
They believe that the person who lives after death is still the same
person, but they will be incorruptible
They believe that resurrection is a miracle from God
Before Jesus, Pharisees believed in resurrection and it is mentioned in
the Old Testament in the book of Daniel. Christians base their belief in
resurrection on biblical accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection
The gospels say that after Jesus was crucified and died, his body was
placed in a tomb with a heavy stone over the entrance. On the third day,
the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus was
then seen and heard by his followers, as a man in a physical body
Plato, Descartes, Aquinas, Ward, Swinburne all believe the soul is
separate from the body and will survive after the body’s death
Christianity teaches that people have souls which are capable of
surviving the death of the body. After death, people are resurrected, and
live on in a new dimension, some with God in heaven
Different interpretations of the soul and ideas about heaven
Although the Bible does present teaching about life after death, it’s not
always clear how this should be interpreted. Literally or metaphorically?
The Bible makes reference to hell and to eternal punishment –
incompatible with the notion of a God of infinite love and forgiveness?
No justice without punishment
Although the Bible implies we have free will to choose our moral actions
and beliefs, there is also the idea of an omniscient God who knows even
before we are born which choices we will make and which choices he
has made for us
Christian teaching about the afterlife - Resurrection:
There is life after death in a new kind of existence
Reject reincarnation
They also reject Platonic ideas that the soul leaves the body and
continues in a disembodied way
Instead, they believe that the soul will be given a new, spiritual, glorified
physical body in which to continue to live after death – resurrection
They believe that the person who lives after death is still the same
person, but they will be incorruptible
They believe that resurrection is a miracle from God
Before Jesus, Pharisees believed in resurrection and it is mentioned in
the Old Testament in the book of Daniel. Christians base their belief in
resurrection on biblical accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection
The gospels say that after Jesus was crucified and died, his body was
placed in a tomb with a heavy stone over the entrance. On the third day,
the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus was
then seen and heard by his followers, as a man in a physical body
