Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

Context

Religious people dedicate their entire Earthly lives to God & make personal sacrifices in pursuit of an eschatological reward.

As a result, understanding death and the afterlife is perhaps one of the most philosophically and theologically significant quests.

Heaven

📎Heaven is the ideal eschatological destination – this is where the epistemic distance will close and humans will once again be with God.

The final book of the Bible, Revelations, tells Christians what to expect in heaven: Revelation 21 Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.

From this passage, humans learn that in Heaven, all Earthly things will be 'made new' into a state where there is no more pain, suffering or imperfection.

Humans will be reunited with God living in this state of perfection, just has God had intended prelapsarian. This unit will also consider, through examination of election, who will be able to access heaven.

Hell

In stark contrast to the tranquillity of heaven, hell is a place of punishment, pain and suffering. Within scripture, hell is described as follows: Revelation 21

To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death."

From this, we can infer that hell is no place to be desired. The reference to the 'second death' implies a continuation of the pain and suffering one felt when they met their Earthly demise. Citing the "fiery lake of burning sulphur" indicates that in hell, there will be real physical pain that will continue forever.

Purgatory

Strictly speaking, there are no Biblical references to purgatory.

The idea was developed around 5 centuries after the death and Jesus and, many believe it arose in response to the difficulties that people had in accepting the binary notion of heaven and hell which was deemed inconsistent with an omnibenevolent God.

Within this unit, the main scholar that you would use to support the idea of purgatory is John Hick who, as we know from other units in this course, believes that humans are made imago dei, but, purposefully incomplete.

Understanding the afterlife as eternal

It is clear to see that if the afterlife is understood as a moral state on Earth, then it is not eternal but rather symbolic of our temporal Earthly existence. If there is a purgatory then also, your eschatological destination is not eternal since you will transition from purgatory on to heaven thus, not remaining in one place eternally. Ambiguity arises here however when we are considering whether the commonly understood destinations of heaven and hell are eternal.

Naturally, a large part of this ambiguity lies in the fact that eternity is not a concept that mortals can measure, test or validate. Based on this, the easiest way to answer questions on whether the afterlife is eternal or not is to take a philosophical, rather than theological, understanding of the concept of eternity.

In your essay, this is how you should understand the term eternity, but, you will need to explain this to the examiner by defining how you intend to use the word 'eternal' in your work. You might write something like "This essay will assume the philosophical definition of eternity as one immutable, timeless moment".

Anselm presented**:**

The four dimensionalist approach to understanding God's relationship with time. He argues that since God is 'that which nothing greater can be conceived' he must have control over four dimensions: height, width, depth and, time. In essence here Anselm is arguing that God has full control over both space and time.

From this, he deduces that God experiences time in an eternal way where past present and future all exist together as if they did not and God was experiencing time in the same liner way that humans do, he would not be the 'greatest conceivable thing'.

From this then, we can assume that since God experiences time in one eternal moment, when we unite with him eschatologically, we will also exist in an eternal way. Considering whether the afterlife is eternal or not will have implications on whether it should be understood as physical or spiritual.

Understanding heaven, hell and purgatory as physical places

Augustine

In his work City of God, Augustine puts forth the notion that Hell is an everlasting, physical place of punishment.

In both of these references to Augustine's work we can see that he believed that hell would be a physical place of suffering because he is referencing physical phenomena such as a body, consumption and burning.

Augustine's views on the fall can also be used to imply that heaven will be a physical place. This is because Augustine believes that it is only postlapsarian that humans have become separated from God. This implies that a change that has taken place whereby prelapsarian, humans where with God in the garden of Eden, separated from him and then postlapsarian, at the crucifixion, humans were able to reconnect with God. This means that there has been a change – at one point in time heaven did not exist since it was not required (prelapsarian) then, at another point in time, the crucifixion, it came into existence.

This tells us that the afterlife would be a physical place because things that occupy time also occupy space. There needed to be an empty 'space' for heaven to fill when it came into existence. The fact that the afterlife has not always existed also implies that it exists in an everlasting, rather than eternal way. This is because, if it were eternal then there could be no change, it will have always existed which is not in line with the view that Augustine has about the shift that occurred pre and postlapsarian.

Aquinas:

As we already know, Aquinas believes that happiness in this world is temporary, at best leading to felicitas. Heaven, by contrast, is when we will receive certain knowledge of God in a complete and perfect way. However, during his lifetime Aquinas was able to bridge the gap between himself and a transcendent God when he had a religious experience which he coined the beatific vision. Aquinas argues that when you die, you too will experience a beatific vision where you will be 'face to face' with God forever. The 'face to face' element of this vision can be used to imply that the afterlife could take physical form since being 'face to face' implies a bodily experience.

Dante's Inferno

Italian poet Dante produced the Divine Comedy which comprises of three books, one of which is the Inferno: a literary representation of the medieval worldview of hell.

The work describes the journey of the soul after death and, through the 9 circles of hell and the physical pain, fear and punishment as a result.

This work in itself is not intended to communicate theological truth, however, was more of a deterrence for people in society at the time, this means that in an essay you need to be careful about how you use Dante's work in an argument. Dantes inferno is representative of peoples attitudes at the time and is biblically supported.

Scriptural support

Parable of the sheep and the goats The parable of the sheep and the goats depicts God choosing whether humans go to heaven or hell. The criteria of achieving salvation, deciding whether you are a sheep or a goat is determined by the actions you made in your life. God argues that whatever you did for "the least of these" you did for God.

Those who made the right choices, were able to achieve salvation whilst those who did not, were damned to eternal punishment.

What does this story tell us?

• We are judged by our actions we make in our human life.
• Not everyone goes to heaven, some will be damned to eternal punishment.
• Hell and heaven is a physical place.

Parable of Lazarus and the rich man

The story of Lazarus and the rich man, found in Luke 16:19-31, tells of a wealthy man who lives in luxury while a poor man named Lazarus suffers outside his gate.

After both die, Lazarus is taken to heaven while the rich man ends up in torment in Hades. The rich man pleads for relief and for Lazarus to warn his brothers, but Abraham tells him that if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

The parable highlights themes of justice and the importance of heeding spiritual teachings.

What does this story tell us?

• Hell is a physical place of suffering where God will show no mercy
• We will be judged on our actions.
• We will be rewarded and achieve justice in the afterlife.

Revelations 22 Eden Restored

Revelation 22 describes a restored Eden, with a crystal-clear river of life flowing from God's throne. Along the river stands the tree of life, producing monthly fruit and leaves that heal nations. There is no curse, and God's servants will serve and see Him, with His name on their foreheads. There will be no night, as God provides eternal light, and they will reign forever.

Exegesis of this passage suggests a physical afterlife. The tree of life's monthly fruit indicates change, which requires a physical state. Seeing God's face also implies a physical presence.

Jesus' ascension

After the resurrection, Jesus remained on Earth for 40 days before ascending to heaven. Acts 1:6-12 describes the ascension as follows: "He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." This implies that the afterlife will take a physical form since when Jesus left Earth to ascend to heaven, he physically left.

Church support: Apostle's creed

The Apostle's creed is therefore a summary of what the Church teaches, and of what Christians together believe, rather than a detailed statement of individual and personal belief.

Elements of the Creed can be used to argue that the afterlife will take a physical substance, in particular the element that declares "I believe...in the resurrection of the body"

The afterlife as a physical place

Strengths

• This is the idea most commonly referenced throughout scripture and given that humans are unable to a posteriori verify the existence of a transcendent afterlife for themselves, scripture is a reliable source for them to consult.

Weaknesses

• Bernard Williams in his work Problems of the Self, Williams imagines a character called EM who has been aged 42 for the last 300 years. All that could reasonably happen to a person has happened to her and she no longer finds joy, or anguish in life – she is simply bored.
• Building on the fact that a physical afterlife would be an everlasting one, Bernard Williams uses the character of Em to argue that eventually, the afterlife would become boring and therefore devoid of reward or punishment.
• Parables and other writing as literary techniques: It could be argued that the parables written within the Bible and, the works of the likes on Dante cannot be used to argue that the afterlife will take a physical form since they are not literally true accounts and therefore should not be treated as such. This means that even if the ideas that the stories point to are correct, the story itself cannot be used to prove this.
• Origen would argue that the afterlife would take a spiritual form since physical things are subject to decay and corruption therefore are inferior to unchanging spiritual things

Understanding heaven, hell and purgatory as spiritual places

Aquinas:

In Summa Theologica he writes:

"The blessed will not behold God's essence with their bodily eyes, for bodily eyes, even when they are glorified, behold bodily things and God's essence is not bodily. Those that see God in heaven, before or after the resurrection of the body see him with the mind"

• This quote from Aquinas seems, quite clearly, to point towards a spiritual afterlife where people are 'face to face' with God spiritually, rather than physically.

As previously noted, Aquinas himself had a religious experience whereby he encountered the beatific vision whilst alive. Subsequently he famously declared that his life's work and all of the writings of God he had carried out prior to this point were "like straw" and paled in insignificance when it came to adequately communicating God.

• This concept is mirrored in William James' PINT categorisation of religious experiences whereby ineffability is an essential component of a union with a higher power.
• The ineffability of the beatific vision is precisely what implies that this experience will be a spiritual one. Humans are perfectly capable to describing physical phenomena and so, the fact that Aquinas was incapable of articulating the magnitude of this experience points to the fact that it was a metaphysical one.
• This beatific vision is, according to Aquinas, what the afterlife will be like and so from this, we can conclude that it will be take a spiritual form.

Origen

Theologian Origen presents a view on the afterlife in which we can see clear Platonic influence. Like Plato, Origen too believed that a perfect world would exist in a non-physical realm.

• They both posit that physical elements are subject to change, decay and corruption and as such, are definitively imperfect, which an eternity with God would not be.
• Origen propounds the notion that it is "clearly absurd" to say that the afterlife will take place in a physical form since, in their physicality humans are slaves to the "passions of the flesh and blood" and as such it logically follows that the soul must be an immaterial immortal perfect essence of humanity that continues to thrive in a spiritual sense after death.

Eternity: As noted previously in this revision guide, the philosophical understanding of eternity is that all of time: past; present and; future, exist simultaneously in one immutable moment. This definition lends itself exclusively to a spiritual afterlife. This is because a physical afterlife cannot exist in an immutable moment since physical things occupy space and time. This means that the afterlife will not be physical and therefore must be physical.

Scriptural support: Jesus' words on the cross

📎 During the crucifixion, Jesus granted salvation to one of the criminals being crucified alongside him with the words "tonight you will be with me in paradise".

From this, we can deduce that when the criminal dies, they will be in heaven. Not only that but, that Jesus will be there too.

Given that it was not until 43 days after the crucifixion that Jesus actually ascended to heaven, it is reasonable to conclude that heaven will take a spiritual form.

This is because, physically, Jesus was still on Earth and so the part of him that would have been with the criminal in heaven 'tonight' must have been a spiritual one. Additionally, the notion that Jesus is both in heaven and immanent simultaneously implies that heaven is eternal in the philosophical sense of being one immutable moment. This concept also supports the idea of a spiritual afterlife rather than a changing, everlasting place that occupies space and time like a physical heaven would.

The afterlife as a spiritual place

The afterlife as a spiritual place: strengths

• Consistent with the concept of eternity
• Avoids the criticisms of the likes of Bernard Williams that the afterlife would be boring
• Explains why there has been no 'physical' discovery of eschatological destinations within the universe (i.e. why no one has discovered where heaven and hell are)

The afterlife as a spiritual place: weaknesses

• There are consistent references within scripture that imply the afterlife will occupy physical space

Sartre: Understanding heaven, hell and purgatory as moral states on Earth In his play No Exit, Sartre famously wrote "hell is other people".

From this, we can deduce that the afterlife is not a physical or spiritual state that people will transition to eschatologically. Instead, the concept of hell is a metaphor for our experiences within the world we currently live. It is a moral state.

In this, Sartre argues that being human means that you have consciousness. However, your mind is not alone in the world and other humans have consciousness too.

Aristotle

📎 The traditional theological understanding of the afterlife is heavily entwined with the idea that reaching a positive eschatological destination is part of the purpose of our Earthly lives.

This concept of all humans having a purpose can be traced back to Aristotle and his understanding of the notion of telos.

Aristotle's ideas were hugely influential on Aquinas and it is through him that the concept of achieving God-like perfection through salvation became a central component of Christian doctrine.

However, if we go back to the Aristotelian roots of this idea, we can see that human telos is something that can be achieved on Earth and therefore the ultimate state of human actualisation happens in this life and not eschatologically.

Aristotle, a monist, proposed that at the point of bodily death, the soul will also cease to exist. This, for him, was because the soul is that which gives the body it's capabilities to achieve it's telos. Once the body is no longer animate, there is no ability to fulfil a telos.

💡 From this we can deduce that the telos of humans is achieved in our lifetime; not beyond it. For Aristotle then, this telos came from achieving eudaimonia: flourishing, which is the highest human good and is achieved by living a life according to the principles of virtue ethics.

The afterlife as a moral state

The afterlife as a moral state: strengths Consistent with post-enlightenment and secular thinking There is no empirical evidence for life after death and therefore it is perhaps more reasonable to propose that our Earthly lives, which we can verify, are all that we have.

The afterlife as a moral state: weaknesses Inconsistent with religious understanding Aristotle's views had later been developed by Aquinas to provide a more developed understanding of human telos, beyond this world