Different Views on the Afterlife

Different attitudes to the afterlife

Christian view - Bodily resurrection

• Largely based on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead
  
• This was a physical event but Jesus was in a semi-spiritual body - Needed food and drink, but could walk through walls
• Bible dictates that the bodies of the dead will rise with Jesus followed by those of the living
• Issues arise over what happens in between or whether we go straight to God as the thief on the cross story suggests (Jesus told a thief also being crucified that he would be in Paradise today)
• 4th Lateran council discussed issues of resurrection in 1215 and declared: 'All would rise in their own, entire and immortal bodies'
• The Council declared that Heavenly resurrection gave you Power + Agility, Impassibility (No pain), glory and without want
• The council influenced Aquinas who took a Aristotelian approach to body and soul, declaring the soul as 'principle to life'…