Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-04T21:34:26.436Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Mind, body, and immortality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Michael J. Murray  and
Michael C. Rea
Michael J. Murray
Affiliation:
Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
Michael C. Rea
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Get access

Summary

Dust you are, and to dust you shall return. So Christians worldwide are reminded every year during the Ash Wednesday liturgy. But according to Christian doctrine, the return to dust is not the end of all things. In the words of the Nicene Creed, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” The Islamic tradition expresses a similar expectation:

I swear by the Day of Resurrection, and by the self-reproaching soul. Does man think We shall never put his bones together again? Indeed, We can remould his very fingers! Yet man would ever deny what is to come. “When will this be,” he asks, “this day of Resurrection?” But when the sight of mortals is confounded and the moon eclipsed; when sun and moon are brought together – on that day man will ask “Whither shall I flee?” No, there shall be no escape. For on that day all shall return to your Lord.

Likewise, the Hebrew Bible predicts a future resurrection, and the thirteenth-century Jewish philosopher-theologian Maimonides lists belief in bodily resurrection as one of the thirteen central principles of the Jewish faith.

Belief in some sort of afterlife is characteristic of most world religions. But is life after death really possible? Many philosophers think that it is not. If they are right, then the core doctrines of a great many world religions will have to be either substantially modified or rejected.

Type
Chapter
Information
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion , pp. 258 - 286
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bynum, Caroline Walker, The Resurrection of the Body (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Churchland, Paul, Matter and Consciousness, revised edition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988).Google Scholar
Cooper, John, Body, Soul and Life Everlasting (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989).Google Scholar
Corcoran, Kevin (ed.), Soul, Body, and Survival (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001).Google Scholar
Edwards, Paul, (ed.), Immortality (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1992).Google Scholar
Merricks, Trenton, “The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting,” in Murray, Michael (ed.), Reason for the Hope Within (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).Google Scholar
Perry, John, Dialogues on Personal Identity and Immortality (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1978).Google Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney and Swinburne, Richard, Personal Identity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984).Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard, The Evolution of the Soul, revised edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×