3. Life after death - Beatific Vision
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 31-05-17 11:28
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- Beatific Vision
- Outline
- '...for now we see in a mirror darkly, but then we will see face to face' Paul
- In Christian theology, ultimate direct self-revelation of God to individual, when he or she reaches perfect salvation in its entirety (i.e. Heaven)
- Encompasses whole human experience of joy and happiness that will come from finally seeing God face to face
- Wee will be transfixed by His light and by the angels that encircle His Glory, where Divine Being sits at centre of theophanic cloud
- Pope John Paul II said Heaven 'is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living personal relationship with the Holy Trinity'
- Aquinas describes this 'seeing God' as 'intellectual knowledge of the divine substance'
- It is not seeing this vision as an outside object but 'dwelling within the very essence of our soul...' (Hick)
- Aquinas overcomes 'heavenly boredom' or purposeless arguing intellect will always be in state of wonder since it cannot fully comprehend it
- However, Hick argues: '...deep conceptual difficulties emerge when we try to visualise a society of perfected individuals in a totally stress-free environment from which pain, sorrow and death have been banished. The basic problem is t conceive of a worthwhile human existence in a situation in which there can be no needs, lacks, problems, perils, tasks, satisfactions or therefore, purposes.'
- Just because we cannot conceive something doesn't mean it's impossible
- Aquinas's view of God
- Necessary being
- Outside time + space
- Therefore any afterlife (heaven)
- Must be outside time and space
- Can't be a physical place but more a state of mind
- Timeless, spaceless - Beatific Vision
- Total fulfillment + happiness/purpose 100%
- Hell
- Temporal - time passes there in a similar way it passes on Earth
- Souls receive bodies and suffer punishment, partly physical (fire, torture from demons), partly spiritual (alienation from God's presence, feelings of loss and abandonmen)
- Torment goes on forever because, as Aquinas reasons, if duration were shorter pain would have to be more intense (to make it fair) and human body couldn't stand anything more intense
- Many modern Christians play down punishment side of Hell and emphasise how people have ended up there by deliberately rejecting God, which makes suffering purely spiritual
- Purgatory
- Other souls have been 'saved'
- Place of purification
- Perfect souls are worthy of BV, most souls need a bit of 'cleaning up' first
- Sins are purged out of you - painful process
- Catholic church used to teach souls went to Purgatory for fixed amount of years but time in Purgatory could be 'bought off' with good works on Earth (or donations to Church's bank accounts) - discredited idea
- Modern Christians who believe in Purgatory tend to emphasise how souls can grow and learn there, rather than suffer for their sins
- This idea is important in Irenean Theodicy
- The Timeless Beatific Vision
- According to Aquinas is final goal of mankind
- Humans who attain will share God's knowledge
- Roman Catholic theology affirms God is outside time and space
- This is an awesome, unending, unchanging understanding of all time and space - literally the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything
- BV will vary from person to person but always be completely and utterly satisfying
- No idea here of heavenly society where you might be reunited with grandparents
- Strengths
- Consistent with Aquinas's view of God - He doesn't contradict himself
- If heaven is a physical place there should be evidence
- Which there isn't
- It's not in this universe so we shouldn't expect to see it or find it
- Which there isn't
- Perhaps we should expect Eternal Life to be totally 'other' and beyond our grasp - if it's just the same as this life it's not very heavenly!
- Ties in with Jesus's story about marriage in heaven
- Weaknesses
- Aquinas's 'God' is very transcendent, impersonal + arguably not consistent with Bible
- Can something exist if it doesn't exist in time + space?
- How can we experience anything without a brain?
- Can I be 'me' in a timeless, spaceless existence - is my Personal Identity preserved?
- Hick states he cannot believe in a place with humans that lack 'problems, perils', etc.
- Contradictions
- Bodiless souls are supposed to go to Purgatory
- They only receive bodies when they leave but Aquinas says "anima mea non est ego" (my soul is not myself, remember, only body-and-soul together make up a full human person)
- If only way my soul is being cleansed in Purgatory, but my soul is not 'me', then who or what exactly is in Purgatory
- Souls in BV receive new glorified bodies
- How can human body be timeless since bodies almost by definition must exist in space and time
- Bodiless souls are supposed to go to Purgatory
- Outline
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