Afterlife from a Christian Point of View

Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed including detail and some examples.

Every culture has a unique ideas of the afterlife. This paper will compare how two ancient societies viewed the afterlife. The ancient societies to be discussed are the Egyptians and the Chinese. This paper will compare and contrast the two views in a limited way. It will consider what this suggests about the two cultures. Lastly, it will consider which is closer to modern American beliefs.

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.

The aim of my report is to explain how the view of the afterlife in Ancient Greece has shaped works of art, books and the mentality of people. In order to do this I am going to explore how ancient Greek people saw the underworld as well as Roman people and the Renaissance period. Because Greeks saw the underworld as a dark, dreadful and gloomy place, many of the works that refer to it, either in Roman times or the Renaissance, are influenced by this view. In particular works like the Odyssey by Homer or The Phaedo by Plato, explained to a certain level the structure of the afterlife in ancient Greece. These two pieces of literature severely influenced works like the book VI of the Aeneid by Virgil where he depicts the underworld referencing to the Greek point of view. But a deeper description of the underworld is given by Dante in his Divine Comedy where he uses Virgil as his guide, from the depths of hell to the Purgatory while Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through heaven. All these time periods shared the idea of the underworld as being a place where souls pay the sins they committed during their lives.

However in Christianity there are opposing terms which are linked within life after death firstly heaven; defined as a place

The Christian faith in relation to its death literature and its death systems presents very complex image, however patterns can be seen throughout the examples. Firstly, that death and society or death and religion seem to be linked in the sense that the death

Billy Collins is considered one of the most popular poets in America. He is an accomplished writer; he has twenty-two poetry books published and was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. In Collins’s 1991 poetry collection Questions about Angels, the poem “The Afterlife” describes the fantasies people have towards the afterlife that many have when alive. It addresses a variety of beliefs people have towards the afterlife: belief in reincarnation, those who find themselves “in a big air-conditioned room full of food and chorus girls,” and more (line 17). Collins uses imagery in the poem to reach and speak to the readers of the poem. The afterlife is considered a touchy subject in most societies conversely, Collins deflates the unease with his satirical yet harmless nevertheless ending the poem in a serious, melancholic tone.

These ideals are very different from modern-day beliefs about death. Christian views about the afterlife include the two options for our souls after death: heaven- the happy, safe, and comfortable place where the good people go, and hell-the fiery, and dangerous place some go to if they made bad choices on Earth. Others believe in reincarnation, where a person’s soul lives on and takes the form of something else. Many people, no matter their religious stance, want to believe that there is something else after death, because it makes it easier when the time comes. It certainly eases some of the grief and anxiety that people face over death, and is far more comforting than the beliefs that ancient Mesopotamians held about death.

One of the most frequently debated topics in today’s society is the afterlife. This is topic is so intriguing because it is impossible for one to truly know the destination of our souls after death. A destination after death has been debated since the beginning of time. Some of its earliest examples of this are pieces of literature such as The Iliad where Homer wrote of an Underworld. By examining the common beliefs about the afterlife of different societies and times, we can also obtain a clearer idea of the common beliefs on religion and politics.

​This paper will analyze afterlife in Hinduism and in Catholicism. Afterlife will be considered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020-1060 and in Romans 10. Afterlife will also be considered in Bhagavad Gita 2:27, Obayashi page 146 and in Rig Veda 10.14.8. This topic is intriguing because death is a part of life and it is interesting to see the different perspectives of their two religions and of what happens in the afterlife. Besides the perspectives, this topic studies the greatest mystery of life, death which is an uncommon topic since people usually shy away from talking about this because of the emotional implications that it brings to people.

One of the most ancient mystery yet unsolved is the question pertaining to death and the afterlife. This mystery is one of the fundamental studies in both field of philosophy and religion. Comparing those who believe in a god-existing religion against those who don’t, we often see many differences in the answers relating to death. In the contrary, the similar answers to theist and atheist are evident strongly in two great thinkers and their works. The focus will be on Socrates’ speech in the Apology by Plato setting in 399 BCE and De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius 300 years later.

When we think of heaven, most of us think of this wonderful place full of white and bright light. We also mostly think it is full of joy and happiness, with the loved ones who have left us behind. What does the afterlife truly hold for us that are still here on earth? In the film “Field of Dreams,” we take a look into what the afterlife means to deceased baseball players. This film teaches about the afterlife in a new perspective. It shows how afterlife is where dreams come

A study of American undergraduates indicated that the beliefs about the nature of life after death were quite complicated. A 41-item questionnaire produced 12 independent groups of beliefs. Belief in an internal locus of control and that one’s life is owned by God were associated with a more positive view of the afterlife, as was being Roman Catholic rather than Protestant. The most common beliefs were that one is reunited with family and friends, that the afterlife is comforting, that there is Heaven and that the transition is peaceful, all believed by more than 90 percent of the students.

From the moment I was born I was a Methodist. I was baptized in church very young and henceforth brought up in that same church. Every Sunday my family and I get up and head to church, and I mean every Sunday. Because of this, the belief in God has been heavily instilled with me along with many of the key principles of Christianity, one of those being the afterlife. I believe that 2 forms of the afterlife exist: Heaven and Hell.