Blackwell Reference Online

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Do human beings survive bodily death? Many answers to this question have been given. Some affirmative answers amount to what might be called weak senses of survival. We survive death, it is said, in that we pass our genes, or our influences, or our accomplishments on to future generations. Or we survive death in that we always remain precious to God in God's memory.But suppose we ask the question in a more robust sense: do human beings survive death in the sense that they continue to exist after bodily death as conscious persons? Four main answers have been given to this question. First, we do not survive death in any strong sense. Second, we survive death through successive reincarnations. Third, we survive death because our immaterial selves or souls are immortal. Fourth, we survive death because our bodies will be resurrected.This article is a philosophical reflection on that aspect of Christian theology that concerns survival of death. Of the four possible answers to the question with which we began, it is clearly the last - resurrection of the body - with which Christian theology is most closely associated. As to the first answer, very few Christians have ever held that “death ends all.” As to the second, a few avant-garde theologians, especially in the twentieth century, have suggested that reincarnation is compatible with Christianity, but Christian tradition virtually unanimously ... log in or subscribe to read full text