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Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy
of Religion
Series Editors
Yujin Nagasawa
School of Philosophy
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Erik Wielenberg
Philosophy
DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana, USA
“Wow! I've been waiting for a book like this for a long time. The sheer
number of different beliefs about the afterlife that are examined is
impressive, as is the beautiful balance of religious, philosophical, theolo-
gical, and scientific perspectives. Students and scholars in a variety of
disciplines will find this book invaluable.”
The Palgrave
Handbook
of the Afterlife
Editors
Yujin Nagasawa Benjamin Matheson
School of Philosophy University of Gothenburg
University of Birmingham Göteborg, Sweden
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Cover illustration: Vintage engraving from the 1870 of a scene from the New Testament by Gustave Doré
showing The Last Judgement
The idea for this edited volume arose as a result of our research cluster
initiative ‘Death, Immortality, and the Afterlife’ at the John Hick Centre for
Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham. Our funding came
from the Analytic Theology Project at the University of Innsbruck, a project
funded by the John Templeton Foundation and led by Georg Gasser. The
cluster initiative aimed to bring together philosophers and theologians to
discuss an area of mutual interest. We are grateful to the funding bodies for
their generous support. We would also like to thank the participants in the
initiative: Paul Badham, Lynne Rudder Baker, Toby Betenson, John Bishop,
David Cheetham, Matthew Churchouse, Luke Fox, Matthew Fox, Gregory
Shushan, Eric Steinhart, Naomi Thompson, Khai Wager and Jerry Walls.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Benjamin Matheson
4 Hinduism 61
Ankur Barua
5 Buddhism 85
Peter Harvey
6 Judaism 107
Tyron Goldschmidt and Aaron Segal
7 Christianity 129
Joshua Farris
vii
viii Contents
8 Islam 153
Amir Dastmalchian
9 Heaven 177
Luke Henderson
11 Purgatory 215
David Hershenov and Rose Hershenov
12 Rebirth 235
Mikel Burley
Index 455
List of Figures
xi
List of Tables
Table 8.1 The frequency of terms pertaining to the afterlife in the Quran 158
Table 8.2 The frequency of various terms in the Quran which do not
pertain to the afterlife 159
xiii
1
Introduction
Benjamin Matheson
B. Matheson (*)
Department of Philosophy, Linguistics, and Theory of Science, University
of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]
that something like this might underpin, or at least contribute to, the
human tendency to form beliefs about an afterlife.
In support of this hypothesis, we can point out that those who believe in
an afterlife typically presume that an afterlife guarantees immortality, in
some respect. For instance, Christian conceptions usually say that we shall
live forever (in heaven or in hell). However, the concept of ‘afterlife’ does not
logically entail an eternal post-mortem existence. It is possible that there is an
afterlife but that it is only for a limited time. For instance, it might be true
that we survive death in some sense, but at a later time we then go out of
existence. This might seem like a pointless afterlife, of course, but that’s not a
good reason to think that this is not what the afterlife (if there is one) is like.
Because it doesn’t alleviate the human worry about future non-existence – it,
at best, delays that worry for another day – this is perhaps why belief in such
an afterlife is not common.
Suppose we accept that there is an afterlife of some sort, as many people
currently do. There is a range of questions we might then ask about this
afterlife. We might first wonder: what is the afterlife like? This is a highly
important question for those who believe there is some sort of afterlife. If our
lives extend beyond the life of our bodies, then it is important to know what
our post-body lives will be like. For starters, it is important to know whether
the afterlife will be a positive experience or not. However, as we shall see,
positive conceptions of the afterlife are not ubiquitous. We might also
wonder: is it possible to survive the death of our bodies? Since we know
that our bodies will die, we need a story that explains how that does not
simply mean that we will also irreversibly cease to exist. After learning what
the afterlife might be like and whether it is possible to survive the death of
our bodies, we might then wonder whether the afterlife has any point. Even
if the afterlife is a positive experience (whether completely or on the whole),
we might question the need for this positive post-mortem existence. We
might also wonder whether there is any evidence of an afterlife. If there is no
evidence for our beliefs about the afterlife, we might wonder whether our
afterlife beliefs are in fact justified. We might also wonder what the source of
our afterlife beliefs is. Do they, for instance, have an evolutionary source?
This book is arranged around answers to these questions.
The first three parts of this book cover answers to the what is it like?
question. Part One covers ancient beliefs about the afterlife – in particular,
the afterlife in Early Civilizations and the Classical Mediterranean period.
Part Two covers the afterlife in the main contemporary world religions:
Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Part Three investi-
gates particular models of the afterlife: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Rebirth, and
1 Introduction 3
Digitalism. These chapters do not just propose answers to the what is it like?
question, but it is one of the central themes in each of them.
In Chapter 2, Gregory Shushan kicks things off with an examination of
the conceptions of the afterlife in Early Civilizations – specifically, Old and
Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumerian and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia,
Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and Maya and Aztec Mesoamerica.
Shushan observes that there are similar themes that emerge in their respective
afterlife beliefs, such as: some form of non-physical existence, journeys to
other realms, experiences of light and darkness, meeting deceased relatives,
judgment based on one’s pre-mortem life, encounters with other beings,
obstacles or barriers, some sort of ‘Ultimate Reality’, and a reconciliation of
opposites. Shushan also notes that the similarity between beliefs about the
afterlife in these civilizations has another interesting feature – namely that
there are no known mutual predecessors to these various cultures.
Some similar themes are found in Stephen R. L. Clark’s discussion of
conceptions of the afterlife in the Classical Mediterranean period (viz.,
between the seventh century BCE and the fifth century AD) in Chapter 3.
For example, we learn that some held that there was a form of non-physical
post-mortem existence in the form of our memories continuing to exist in
Hades. For some, however, this was not considered a form of survival. Even
though a person’s memories were thought to survive, the person herself did
not. Upon death, it was believed that the various aspects constituted that the
person leave her body – namely force (menos), will (thumos), guts (phrenes)
and breath (psyche). Some held that there was conscious experience in Hades
but it was regret – something that was later considered to be a form of eternal
damnation. For others, there was a notion of the ‘soul’ that could survive
death and travel to other realms. But only a select few – such as heroes –
could survive death in this way. These heroes were granted immortality and
then might go on journeys to different realms.
Clark discusses further conceptions of the afterlife from this period.
Among these are the eternal return, and no-self panpsychism. According to
the eternal return view, which was held by Stoics, once the world ends it
starts again and plays out exactly as it did this time. The idea was that we
would never truly die because the world will begin again and we will
effectively re-live our lives. According to no-self panpsychism, which was
held by Epicureans, there is in fact no afterlife because there is no self to
survive death. Death is really just the cessation of a type of awareness (or
perspective) that arises from a particular conglomeration of atoms, and each
atom itself has a type of awareness (or perspective). Epicureans argued that
just as we did not exist before we were born, we will not exist after we are
4 B. Matheson
dead. And just as we don’t expect life (or fear non-existence) before birth, we
shouldn’t expect life (or fear non-existence) after death. Of course, our
constituent atoms have a type of awareness (or perspective) and these
atoms may come to constitute another person. So, just as ‘we’ might have
been part of someone in the past, ‘we’ might be part of someone in the
future. As Clark notes, this makes Epicureanism remarkably like Theravadin
Buddhism, which may have been the result of contact with Buddhist mis-
sionaries, who believed in a form of rebirth.
In Part Two, we turn to the afterlife in world religions. While Part One
answered the what is it like? question from the perspective of ancient beliefs
about the afterlife, Part Two touches upon historical and contemporary
answers to that question from distinct religious perspectives. In Chapter 4,
Ankur Barua takes us through the complex and often misunderstood religion
known as ‘Hinduism’. As Barua points out, what is often referred to as
‘Hinduism’ is not one single religion or practice, but rather a cluster of
religions or practices adhered to by those in Indian subcontinent. To pro-
ceed, Barua takes a particular methodological starting point: he will not
worry whether or not a particular practice is ‘religious’ or not. He then
distinguishes between two things: the mythic imaginations of the afterlife
and the metaphysical conceptions of the afterlife. His essay proceeds by
displaying the interplay between these two things, and how that has pro-
duced a variety of ‘Hindu’ views about the afterlife. Barua describes the
variety of death rituals that inform what some people’s afterlife beliefs are, as
well as a variety of conceptions of the various levels of the afterlife, such as
encounters with ancestors and heavens (svarga) and hells (naraka) – though
these heavens and hells, unlike on most Abrahamic conceptions, are not
permanent locations for the dead, but rather places that they pass through.
He also describes the role of karma in certain of these conceptions for
establishing post-mortem treatment of individuals. Sometimes karma deter-
mines what afterlife realm, such as the aforementioned heavens and hells, a
person will have to experience. Sometimes it determines what a person will
be reborn as – e.g. as a human or a different animal. Barua also outlines
several conceptions of the self throughout the Hindu traditions. What
becomes apparent is that there are tensions between mythical narratives
about the afterlife and metaphysical conceptions of the self. Barua ends his
essay by discussing how Hindus try to live with these tensions in everyday
life, and effects it has on them.
In Chapter 5, Peter Harvey addresses Buddhism. Just as there is a range of
conceptions of the afterlife in Hinduism, there is also a range of conceptions
of the afterlife in Buddhism. Harvey’s contribution focuses on beliefs shared
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