Christianity - Self, Death and the Afterlife

To Glorify God and have a personal relationship with him 

• Christians believe that Humans can't know the nature of God.
• The Bible - John's Gospel - often refers to God's glory - because we are created in God's image, Christians argue we should reflect and spread God's glory throughout our lives.
• By living a life that glorifies God means Christians will experience the Kingdom of God.

To prepare for Judgement 

• In Genesis - humans were created to have fellowship with God - but the original Sin resulted in alienation from God.
• Only God could restore the relationship - this is done through Jesus' Atonement 
• The final act of reconciliation is Judgement - all humans will face - Christians are unsure when this will take place.
• The Parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) - this is the best way to describe Judgement.
• Heaven is seen as a reward for good behaviour - justification by works.
  

To bring about God's Kingdom on Earth 

• For some Christians, they believe that the Kingdom of God will be fully realised after death.
• Some Christians argue this is an event sometime in the future - e.g. the 2nd coming of Jesus & the Last Judgement.

Others argue the purpose of life is to live in a way that values the kingdom;

• Stewardship - the responsibility of caring for God's creation not just humans but also animals
• The Old Testament - talks about a new age filled with justice, peace and fulfilment.
• God will make a new covenant with Creation.
• Instead of waiting for God to intervene, humans should act and bring about the Kingdom of God on earth through the use of justice.

• Christians who already try to bring about God's Kingdom see it as a means of giving glory to God - develop their own virtues
• But from this, they develop a personal relationship with God sustained through prayer and meditation.

Concept of the Soul

In the beginning, God gave Adam 'the breath of life' - which is interpreted as the soul.

• Plato argued that there were 2 realities - the imperfect world of humans and the World of Forms.
• The body perishes at death but the immortal soul returns to the World of Forms before experiencing Reincarnation.

• Dualism - The soul is distinct from the body - 2 separate substances - The soul defines the person.
• Holistic view - both the body and the soul are linked and perish at death
• Psychologists - believe in the psyche - this determines human individuality.

The resurrection of Jesus forms the very centre of the Christian faith

• It forms the basis of Christian hope for a life after death
• What would be the point of life and death if the resurrection was fictional 
• All Accounts of the resurrection were similar and all had the same information portrayed.
  
• Christians are divided as to whether they will rise as a physical body (like Jesus) or as a spiritual body.
• This event has opened up the possibility for an eternal life after death for humanity.
  

Augustine - Resurrection as physical

• The Fall (Adam and Eve disobeyed  God) - affected the whole of humanity
• Humans are dependent on God's Grace to deliver them from the eternal punishment of sin
• Christ's atonement and his physical resurrection provided the possibility for a continued life after death if God chooses you. 
• To Augustine, if Jesus' resurrection was physical, then ours will be.
• This view is also adopted in Roman Catholic Tradition.

Spiritual Resurrection 

This view was adopted by St Paul

• Some Christians believe that at death the body decomposes back into the ground / destroyed during cremation.
  
• However, the soul survives death and lives on with God
• The Soul may be resurrected into a new heavenly body that had no physical existence on earth
  

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as physical

• Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are physical realities
• Belived by some Fundamental Christians - Protestants reject the idea of purgatory 
• A Judgment, Christ will return in glory to judge all, those assessed as holy will be taken to heaven by angles - those as sinners will be cast into hell.
• For Roman Catholics, people undergo a period of cleansing suffering and pain, enabling them to enter Heaven.

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as Spiritual

• Those who believe in spiritual resurrection - believe they are all spiritual realities.
• Modern Catholic teach these realities as spiritual.
• Purgatory is not a place. Heaven is a Spiritual state and Hell is a realm of torture.
  

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as psychological 

• Some Christians argue Life after death lacks empirical evidence. 
• Heaven, Hell, and Judgment are products of the human mind (e.g. joy, happiness, sadness)

Refer to God cards

• God and the universe are uncreated and eternal - God did not create the universe from nothing but from a complexity of chaotic and formless matter.
• God is not omnipotent - he seeks to achieve his purpose through persuasion - leading to complex and intelligent being (humans)
• God and the universe exist panentheistically - God in the universe the universe in God.

• Most Process theologians believe in objective immortality - all individuals remain eternally as objects in the mind of God after death - we, therefore, will never die.
• Process theologians reject the idea of subjective immortality - the main belief held by Christians that after death humans exist as thinking subjects with continued experiences.

Criticisms of Process Theology

• It is meaningless - if a person no longer has an individual experience - what is the significance of being in God's mind.
• For Christians the point of life after death is a solution for why there is suffering  - if a person no longer exists, there is no verifiable proof or awareness that there is life after death.