A History of the Christian Afterlife

Course Information:

Course: Professor: REL 250 Dr. Thomas Ryba Spring Semester, 2014 535 West State Street, Office 21 Purdue University Office Phone: (765) 743-4652 Classroom: REC 225 E-Mail: [email protected] MWF 10:30-11:20 Office Hours: MW: 1:30-3:20 Page | 1 (O.B.A.) REL 250 A History of the Christian Afterlife

(A Guided Tour Through the History of Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, & Limbo)

A. Purpose of the course: Since its earliest formulation, the Christian idea of the afterlife has been in a process of continuous theological development. This development has depended—to a large extent—on how Christians have interpreted those scriptures dealing with the afterlife, but it has also depended on extra-scriptural cultural legacies. The diverse metaphors Christians have selected to convey their ideas of post-mortem enjoyment of God's presence (and the misery of separation from it) have also been a matter of historical location. Many of the differences between historic formulations were rooted in the way Christians understood cosmology—the way the universe was structured and the kinds of beings inhabiting it—and religious achievement, that is, whether they thought the afterlife had degrees, levels, or "altitudes" corresponding to states of holiness and reprobation or whether they thought it had a flattened topography appropriate to a single fate. These respective notions of religious achievement (and their topographies) were often a gauge of both: changing ideas of God's love and righteousness as well as changing cultural expectations about punishment and reward.

In this course, we will explore the ways Christians have envisioned the afterlife, a course of exploration which will include: New Testament descriptions of heaven as a banquet and hell as Gehenna, Apocryphal notions of celestial and infernal voyages, the Patristic tripartite formulations (of heaven, purgatory and hell), mystical and 19th century descriptions of heaven as sexual union and hell as separation from the beloved, and the typical 20th century abandonment of perpetual punishment in favor of the afterlife as a "process of education." This exploration will be accomplished through readings of original and secondary sources, and its emphasis will be on relating the various historical formulations to the social, theological, and philosophical assumptions that gave rise to them. Page | 2 Finally, we shall pose the question, "How—if at all—is the notion of the afterlife relevant, today?"

B. Course content: Lectures and class discussions will focus on the following themes: (1) historical method and the relations between experience, theology, culture, and ideology in the formation of the Christian notion of the afterlife, (2) pre-Christian antecedents to the notion of the afterlife, (3) the Christian afterlife in the New Testament, (4) the development of the Christian notion of afterlife in the Patristic period, (5) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the Medieval period, (6) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the Renaissance, (7) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the Reformation, (8) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the Enlightenment, (9) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the 19th century and (10) the development of the Christian notion of the afterlife in the 20th century. Students will be responsible for reports on some of the visionary/popular literature beginning with '4,' and the professor will provide the theological and cultural background for each of these periods.

C. Course “Texts”:

Required:

(1) Colleen McDannelll & Bernhard Lang. Heaven: A History. 2nd Edition. New York: Yale Nota Bene, 2001; (2) Alan Segal. Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West. New York: Doubleday, 2004 [Kindle edition available]; (3) Original sources posted on BLACKBOARD Learn; & (4) Two viewings of What Dreams May Come. (This movie is generally recognized as a pastiche of classic depictions of the afterlife. At the end of the course, students will measure the knowledge they have acquired by writing an interpretation of the symbolic elements and themes appropriated in this film.)

Not Recommended for anything, except the plates:

(5) Alice K. Turner. The History of Hell New York: Harcourt & Brace, 1993.

D. Student responsibilities:

In addition to intelligent participation in class students will complete the following.

(1) One midterm (take-home essays) [30%], (2) One in-class presentation [30%], and (3) One final (take-home essays) [30%].

10% of the grade will be based on attendance and participation.

Classroom cell-phone/text messaging policy: No text messaging or reception of cell-phone calls are allowed during class. Please switch all cell-phones off before class begins. Also, the use of laptops for notes is acceptable and even encouraged. However, any students who wish to watch other media—for example, television programs, videos, etc.—or communicate via social media, during class, are asked to remove themselves and enjoy these activities elsewhere.

E. Learning outcomes: By the completion of the course, the "A" student will:

(1) Be able to describe the general roles that theology, culture, and ideology play in the historical

development of the ideas of the afterlife, (2) Be able to describe--in general--the historical direction (and trends) to the development of the Christian notions of the afterlife, (3) Be able to describe major models of the Christian afterlife in the New Testament, Patristic, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and Modern periods, and (4) Be able to describe some contributions of the social worlds (of the various historical periods) to the formulation of models of the afterlife. Page | 3