IB World Religions 1.6.3. Where Are We Going? Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Notes

1.6.3. Where Are We Going? Heaven, Purgatory and Hell

Death, resurrection and judgment

1. Christians hold that human life does not end at death. The creeds state what they expect instead, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
2. The tradition looks forward to a second coming, when Christians hold that Christ will return, and to a last judgment in which every human life is assessed.
3. The resurrection of the body is the older and more distinctive claim. Christians confess that God raises persons whole rather than releasing souls from bodies, which is why burial has been the customary practice.
4. Most Christians also speak of an intermediate state, the condition of the dead between their own death and the general resurrection. Denominations describe it very differently, and some say almost nothing about it.
5. Judgment is put in moral terms in the Gospels. Matthew 25 pictures the nations separated as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, on the basis of how they treated the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned.
6. Christians differ over how literally to take these pictures. What they share is the claim that human choices carry permanent weight.

Heaven and eternal life

1. Heaven is described by Christians as eternal union with God rather than as a location above the sky. The Roman Catholic Catechism calls it the state of supreme and definitive happiness.
2. The centre of the description is relationship. Catholic and Orthodox theology speaks of the beatific vision, seeing God directly, and Orthodox writers speak of theosis, being transformed by sharing in God's life.
3. Scripture supplies images rather than a map. Revelation pictures a new heaven and a new earth, and a city called the New Jerusalem where God lives among people and death is no more.
4. Christians hold that heaven includes other people. The communion of saints names their belief that the living and the dead in Christ belong to a single community.
5. Denominations agree closely here and differ mainly in emphasis. Orthodox writers stress transformation, Catholic teaching the vision of God, and Protestant preaching the restored relationship.
6. Christians also expect the renewal of creation and not only the rescue of individuals. The hope is for the world put right, which is why many churches connect it to present work for justice.

Purgatory across the denominations

1. Purgatory is a Roman Catholic doctrine describing a state of purification for those who die in God's friendship but are not yet fully cleansed of the effects of sin.
2. Catholic teaching is careful about what it does not claim. Everyone in purgatory is held to be certain of heaven, so it is described as a staging post rather than a second chance or a lesser hell.
3. The practice attached to it is prayer for the dead. Catholics offer Masses for named individuals, and All Souls' Day on 2 November is built around that custom.
4. Eastern Orthodox churches pray for the dead just as firmly but decline the Western doctrine. They teach that prayer may help the departed without defining a place or a measured period of purification.
5. Protestant churches rejected purgatory at the Reformation. The reformers argued that scripture does not clearly teach it, and objected to indulgences, the remission of temporal punishment for sin, which Martin Luther attacked in 1517.
6. The disagreement follows from different accounts of forgiveness. Protestant teaching holds that Christ's death deals with sin completely and at once, while Catholic teaching holds that its lingering effects may still need purifying.

Hell and separation from God

1. Hell is described by Christians as separation from God. The Catholic Catechism defines it as the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God.
2. The traditional teaching is that it is eternal and freely entered. Christians who hold it argue that God does not force anyone into relationship, so a settled refusal must remain possible.
3. The scriptural imagery is vivid and varied. It includes fire, outer darkness and Gehenna, the name of a rubbish fire outside Jerusalem, and many Christians read these as images of loss rather than descriptions of torture.
4. Denominations differ over how permanent the condition is. Some Christians hold annihilationism, the view that the finally unrepentant cease to exist rather than suffer forever.
5. Others hold a universalist hope that God will in the end reconcile everyone. Some early writers such as Gregory of Nyssa entertained it, though it has never been the majority position.
6. Churches have grown cautious about individuals. Catholic teaching insists that hell is a real possibility while never declaring that any named person is in it.

Funerals and remembrance

1. Christian funerals state this answer in public. The readings and prayers speak of resurrection and commit the dead to God's care.
2. Burial has been the customary practice because of the resurrection of the body, though most churches now permit cremation, the Roman Catholic Church since 1963.
3. Denominations shape the service differently. A Catholic funeral is normally a Requiem Mass, an Orthodox funeral includes chanting and an open coffin, and Protestant services centre on scripture, preaching and thanksgiving.
4. The dead are remembered through the year. All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in November, and the memorial Saturdays of the Orthodox calendar, keep them within the community's prayer.
5. Christians present this hope as consolation and as demand at once. Because they hold that life continues and is judged, they teach that how a person lives now matters permanently.