The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife

451 Pages·2017·15.48 MB·English

by  Yujin Nagasawa

Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy
of Religion
Series Editors
Yujin Nagasawa
School of Philosophy
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Erik Wielenberg
Philosophy
DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana, USA
“
A judiciously selected, well-structured collection of excellent essays on
an eternal, and timely topic, by leading philosophers of religion as well as
younger philosophers and scholars in other disciplines. When it comes to
the afterlife, the possibilities (and impossibilities) are endless.
Contributors survey an extensive range of exotic post-mortem scenarios
as well as the more familiar accounts associated with Christianity and
”
Buddhism.
–
H.E. Baber, Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego, USA
“
Wow! I've been waiting for a book like this for a long time. The sheer
number of different beliefs about the afterlife that are examined is
impressive, as is the beautiful balance of religious, philosophical, theolo-
gical, and scientific perspectives. Students and scholars in a variety of
”
disciplines will find this book invaluable.
–
Paul Draper, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University, USA
Editorial Board Members: Michael Almeida (University of Texas at San
Antonio), Lynne Rudder Baker (University of Massachusetts Amherst),
Jonathan Kvanvig (Baylor University), Robin Le Poidevin (University of
Leeds), Brian Leftow (University of Oxford), Graham Oppy (Monash
University), Michael C. Rea (University of Notre Dame), Edward Wierenga
(UniversityofRochester).PalgraveFrontiersinPhilosophyofReligionisalong
overdue series which will provide a unique platform for the advancement of
research in this area. Each book in the series aims to progress a debate in the
ff
philosophyofreligionby(i)o eringanovelargumenttoestablishastrikingly
original thesis, or (ii) approaching an ongoing dispute from a radically new
pointofview.Eachtitleintheseriescontributestothisaimbyutilisingrecent
developments in empirical sciences or cutting-edge research in foundational
areas of philosophy (such asmetaphysics,epistemologyand ethics).Theseries
ff
does not publish books o ering merely extensions of or subtle improvements
onexistingarguments.PleasecontactSeriesEditors([email protected]/
[email protected])todiscusspossiblebook projects fortheseries.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14700
Yujin Nagasawa (cid:129) Benjamin Matheson
Editors
The Palgrave
Handbook
of the Afterlife
Editors
YujinNagasawa BenjaminMatheson
SchoolofPhilosophy UniversityofGothenburg
UniversityofBirmingham Göteborg,Sweden
Birmingham,UnitedKingdom
PalgraveFrontiersinPhilosophyofReligion
ISBN978-1-137-48608-0 ISBN978-1-137-48609-7(eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-48609-7
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Acknowledgements
The idea for this edited volume arose as a result of our research cluster
‘ ’
initiative Death,Immortality,andtheAfterlife attheJohnHickCentrefor
Philosophy of Religion atthe University of Birmingham. Our funding came
fromthe AnalyticTheologyProject atthe University of Innsbruck,a project
funded by the John Templeton Foundation and led by Georg Gasser. The
cluster initiative aimed to bring together philosophers and theologians to
discuss an area of mutual interest. We are grateful to the funding bodies for
their generous support. We would also like to thank the participants in the
initiative:PaulBadham,LynneRudderBaker,TobyBetenson,JohnBishop,
David Cheetham, Matthew Churchouse, Luke Fox, Matthew Fox, Gregory
Shushan, Eric Steinhart, Naomi Thompson, Khai Wager and Jerry Walls.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Benjamin Matheson
Part I The History of the Afterlife
2 The Afterlife in Early Civilizations 21
Gregory Shushan
3 Classical Mediterranean Conceptions of the Afterlife 41
Stephen R. L. Clark
Part II The Afterlife in World Religions
4 Hinduism 61
Ankur Barua
5 Buddhism 85
Peter Harvey
6 Judaism 107
Tyron Goldschmidt and Aaron Segal
7 Christianity 129
Joshua Farris
vii
viii Contents
8 Islam 153
Amir Dastmalchian
Part III Models of the Afterlife
9 Heaven 177
Luke Henderson
10 Divine Love and Hell 197
ff
Andrei A. Buckare and Allen Plug
11 Purgatory 215
David Hershenov and Rose Hershenov
12 Rebirth 235
Mikel Burley
13 Digital Afterlives 255
Eric Steinhart
Part IV The Metaphysics of the Afterlife
14 Substance Dualism 277
Uwe Meixner
15 Emergent Dualism 297
William Hasker
16 Resurrecting Material Persons 315
Lynne Rudder Baker
Part V The Meaning of the Afterlife
17 The Fear of Death 333
John Bishop
Contents ix
18 Meaning in Life 353
Thaddeus Metz
19 The Problem of Evil 371
Stephen T. Davis
20 Practical Identity 391
Benjamin Matheson
Part VI The Science of the Afterlife
21 Do Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence
of an Afterlife? 415
Mark Fox
fl
22 How Psychological Dispositions In uence the Theology
of the Afterlife 435
Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt
Index 455
List of Figures
Figure 8.1 A diagram illustrating the basic Muslim belief concerning
the afterlife 156
xi