Death be not Proud: The Problem of the Afterlife

300 Pages·2010·1.77 MB·English

by  Mark Corner

46 Vol. 46
Religions Religions
and Discourse and Discourse
M
a
Might people one day live for ever? Would they want to? What sense can be made r
k
of ideas commonly referred to in terms of an ‘afterlife’? What about notions of C
o
Heaven and Hell, of Purgatory and reincarnation? And in what sort of state are rn
e
human beings expected to be during this ‘afterlife’ – immortal souls or resurrected r
bodies (and does either notion make sense)? What about the fact that any ‘afterlife’ l
D
concerns not just the fate of individuals but of society (‘communion of saints’) and ea
t
even the physical universe itself? h
b
e
n
o
This book tries to survey some of the existing arguments about life ‘after’ death, with t
P
chapters on material from Christian tradition (particularly the New Testament and r
o
u
the Early Church) and from the philosophy of religion. It then attempts to reach d
its own conclusions, drawing on Kant and Barth in order to suggest that death is to Mark Corner
be overcome rather than survived.
Death be not Proud
Mark Corner graduated from Cambridge University in 1975 in history and theol- The Problem of the Afterlife
ogy and went on to complete his PhD on Karl Barth in Durham. Since then he has
taught at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Charles University in Prague
and universities in Belgium (Louvain and Brussels). He has published books on
both religion and international politics (most recently Signs of God: Miracles and
their Interpretation, 2005, and The Binding of Nations: From European Union to
Global Union, 2010).
Peter Lang
ISBN 978-3-03911-998-1
www.peterlang.com
46 Vol. 46
Religions Religions
and Discourse and Discourse
M
a
Might people one day live for ever? Would they want to? What sense can be made r
k
of ideas commonly referred to in terms of an ‘afterlife’? What about notions of C
o
Heaven and Hell, of Purgatory and reincarnation? And in what sort of state are rn
e
human beings expected to be during this ‘afterlife’ – immortal souls or resurrected r
bodies (and does either notion make sense)? What about the fact that any ‘afterlife’ l
D
concerns not just the fate of individuals but of society (‘communion of saints’) and ea
t
even the physical universe itself? h
b
e
n
o
This book tries to survey some of the existing arguments about life ‘after’ death, with t
P
chapters on material from Christian tradition (particularly the New Testament and r
o
u
the Early Church) and from the philosophy of religion. It then attempts to reach d
its own conclusions, drawing on Kant and Barth in order to suggest that death is to Mark Corner
be overcome rather than survived.
Death be not Proud
Mark Corner graduated from Cambridge University in 1975 in history and theol- The Problem of the Afterlife
ogy and went on to complete his PhD on Karl Barth in Durham. Since then he has
taught at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Charles University in Prague
and universities in Belgium (Louvain and Brussels). He has published books on
both religion and international politics (most recently Signs of God: Miracles and
their Interpretation, 2005, and The Binding of Nations: From European Union to
Global Union, 2010).
Peter Lang
ISBN 978-3-03911-998-1
www.peterlang.com
Death be not Proud
Religions and Discourse
Edited by James M.M. Francis
Volume 46
PEtER Lang
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • new York • Wien
Mark Corner
Death be not Proud
The Problem of the afterlife
PEtER Lang
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • new York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche national-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Corner, Mark.
Death be not proud : the problem of the afterlife / Mark Corner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBn 978-3-0353-0024-6
1. Future life--Christianity. 2. Death--Religious
aspects--Christianity. 3. aging--Religious aspects--Christianity. I.
title.
Bt903.C67 2010
236--dc22
2010037487
ISSn 1422-8998
ISBn 978-3-0353-0024-6
© Peter Lang ag, International academic Publishers, Bern 2011
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
all rights reserved.
all parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in germany
Contents
Preface ix
Part One 1
Chapter One
The Inevitability of Death 3
Chapter Two
More of the Same? 17
Chapter Three
The Moral Quality of Life 33
Part Two 47
Chapter Four
Where There Is No Death I – Heaven 49
Chapter Five
Where There Is No Death II – Hell 67
Chapter Six
Eschatology 87
vi
Part Three 107
Chapter Seven
A Tale of Two Deaths 109
Chapter Eight
The New Testament and the ‘Afterlife’ 125
Chapter Nine
Paul and the ‘Afterlife’ 141
Chapter Ten
The Post-Biblical Period 157
Part Four 177
Chapter Eleven
Philosophical Investigations of the ‘Afterlife’ 179
Chapter Twelve
The Idea of Reincarnation 191
Chapter Thirteen
The Identity Problem 207
Part Five 221
Chapter Fourteen
Having the Same Soul and Being the Same Person 223
vii
Chapter Fifteen
The Unavoidable Self 237
Chapter Sixteen
Overcoming Death 249
Chapter Seventeen
Summary and Conclusion 261
Bibliography 273
Index 279