On Two Reasons Christian Theologians Should Reject The Intermediate State
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
James T. Turner
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Typically, Christian theology includes an understanding of human afterlife consisting of two stages. The first is a disembodied existence as an immaterial being in the time between death and resurrection. Normally, it's affirmed that some disembodied humans go to Heaven/Paradise between one's death and resurrection; this is a state I call The Intermediate State. The second stage is the bodily resurrection. In this paper, I focus on The Intermediate State. Though the majority of the Christian tradition affirms it, I think it's mistaken. To show two reasons why, I argue that a traditional metaphysics of human persons deployed to explicate The Intermediate State brings with it one or the other of at least two untoward consequences for Christian theology.