On the Resurrection of the Dead : A New Metaphysics of Afterlife for Christian Thought

Christian tradition has largely held three theological affirmations on the resurrection of the physical body.Firstly, that bodily resurrection is not a superfluous hope of afterlife.Secondly, there is immediate post-mortem existence in Paradise.Finally, there is numerical identity between pre-mortem and post-resurrection human beings.The same tradition also largely adheres to a robust doctrine of The Intermediate State, a paradisiacal disembodied state of existence following the biological death of a human being.This book argues that these positions are in fact internally inconsistent, and so a new theological model for life after death is required.The opening arguments of the book aim to show that The Intermediate State actually undermines the necessity of bodily resurrection.Additionally, substance dualism, a principle The Intermediate State requires, is shown to be equally untenable in this context.In response to this, the metaphysics of the afterlife in Christian theology is re-evaluated, and after investigating physicalist and constitutionist replacements for substance dualist metaphysics, a new theory called "Eschatological Presentism" is put forward.This model combines a broadly Thomistic hylemorphic metaphysics with a novel theory of Time.This is an innovative examination of the doctrine of life after death.It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of analytic theology and philosophy of religion.