On The Resurrection Of The Dead A New Metaphysics Of Afterlife For Christian Thought | Religion

Christian tradition has largely held three theological affirmations on the resurrection of the physical body. Firstly that bodily resurrection is not a superfluous hope of afterlife. Secondly there is immediate post-mortem existence in Paradise. Finally there is numerical identity between pre-mortem and post-resurrection human beings. The same tradition also largely adheres to a robust doctrine of The Intermediate State a paradisiacal disembodied state of existence following the biological death of a human being. This book argues that these positions are in fact internally inconsistent and so a new theological model for life after death is required. The opening arguments of the book aim to show that The Intermediate State actually undermines the necessity of bodily resurrection. Additionally substance dualism a principle The Intermediate State requires is shown to be equally untenable in this context. In response to this the metaphysics of the afterlife in Christian theology is re-evaluated and after investigating physicalist and constitutionist replacements for substance dualist metaphysics a new theory called Eschatological Presentism is put forward. This model combines a broadly Thomistic hylemorphic metaphysics with a novel theory of Time. This is an innovative examination of the doctrine of life after death. It will therefore be of great interest to scholars of analytic theology and philosophy of religion. |On the Resurrection of the Dead A New Metaphysics of Afterlife for Christian Thought | Religion