Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy

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Oxford University Press, 15 ago 2002 - 240 páginas
The Christian doctrine of heaven has been a moral source of enormous power in western culture. It has provided a striking account of the ultimate good in life and has for two millennia animated the hope that our lives can be fully meaningful. Recently, however, the doctrine of heaven has lost much of its grip on the western imagination and has become a vague and largely ignored part of the Christian creed. Not only have our hopes been redefined as a result, but our very identity as human beings has been altered. In this book, Jerry L. Walls argues that the doctrine of heaven is ripe for serious reconsideration. He contends not only that the orthodox view of heaven can be defended from objections commonly raised against it, but also that heaven is a powerful resource for addressing persistent philosophical problems, not the least of which concern the ground of morality and the meaning of life. Walls shows how heaven is integrally related to central Christian doctrines, particularly those concerning salvation, and tackles the difficult problem of why faith in Christ is necessary to save us from our sins. In addition, heaven is shown to illumine thorny problems of personal identity and to be an essential component of a satisfactory theodicy. Walls goes on to examine data from near-death experiences from the standpoint of some important recent work in epistemology and argues that they offer positive evidence for heaven. He concludes that we profoundly need to recover the hope of heaven in order to recover our very humanity.

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Índice

Heaven and Gods Goodness
14
Heaven the Nature of Salvation and Purgatory
34
Heaven and Its Inhabitants
63
Heaven Trinity and Personal Identity
92
Heaven and the Problem of Irredeemable Evil
113
Heaven and Visions of Life after Life
133
Heaven Morality and the Meaning of Life
161
Conclusion
198
Notes
201
Index
217
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Página 16 - If the whole of natural theology, as some people seem to maintain, resolves itself into one simple, though somewhat ambiguous, at least undefined proposition, that the cause or causes of order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence...
Página 5 - I have thought, I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God : just hovering over the great gulf ; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen ; I drop into an unchangeable eternity ! I want to know one thing, — the way to heaven ; how to land safe on that happy shore.
Página 36 - WHOSOEVER will be saved : before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled : without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
Página 78 - See, from his head, his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down : Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown ? 4 Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Página 19 - ... effaced by the rolling of the sands or inundation of the waters. Why then do you refuse to admit the same method of reasoning with regard to the order of nature ? Consider the world and the present life only as an imperfect building, from which you can infer a superior intelligence; and arguing from that superior intelligence, which can leave nothing imperfect, why may you not infer a more finished scheme or plan, which will receive its completion in some distant point of space or time ? Are...
Página 175 - It is even harder to realize that this present universe has evolved from an unspeakably unfamiliar early condition, and faces a future extinction of endless cold or intolerable heat. The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.
Página 58 - Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, "It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy"?
Página 197 - Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again
Página 18 - His power we allow is infinite: whatever he wills is executed : but neither man nor any other animal is happy : therefore he does not will their happiness. His wisdom is infinite : he is never mistaken in choosing the means to any end : but the course of Nature tends not to human or animal felicity : therefore it is not established for that purpose.
Página 16 - If it affords no inference that affects human life, or can be the source of any action or forbearance : And if the analogy, imperfect as it is, can be carried no farther than to the human intelligence; and cannot be transferred, with any appearance of probability, to the qualities of the mind...

Sobre el autor (2002)

Jerry L. Walls is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky and Senior Speaking Fellow for the Morris Institute for Human Values. His first excursion into eschatology was Hell: The Logic of Damnation.

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