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Death and Eternal Life, by John Hick

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About the Author

John Hick is Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham in England. He is the author of a number of books, including A Christian Theology of Religions, Death and Eternal Life, and God Has Many Names , all of which are published by WJK.

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Product details

Paperback: 496 pages

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (January 1, 1994)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0664255094

ISBN-13: 978-0664255091

Product Dimensions:

5.5 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

3.7 out of 5 stars

9 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#955,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

If Christians are looking for support for their Hellenized version of the afterlife, this is not the book to provide that. But if you are open to exploring new ideas and philosophy that is compatible with a Christian faith, but maybe not consistent with its history, this book is a great read. I thought more about the afetr life, our ideas of it, and why we believe the way we do, while reading this book, than any other book I have read. The book should be part of any Christian library, not because it supports your view, but because it helps you think more deeply about them. I finished the book, not agreeing with Hick's final conclusion, but thankful for spending the time to read what he wrote.

I've read and re-read a number of books by this author.

very heady and difficult to understand for the average seminary reader. I am not a philosopher. Hick jumps around and really has a hard time with thesis statements. There aren't any! prerequisite should be a class in basic world religion.

John Hick (1922-2012) was an English philosopher of religion and theologian who taught at such institutions as Cornell University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Cambridge University. He has written/edited many other books, such as Evil and the God of Love,The Myth of God Incarnate, etc.He wrote in the Preface to this 1976 book, “the religions of the world declare that this life is part of a much larger existence which transcends our life-span as animal organisms, whether through the continuance of individual consciousnesses or through participation in a greater transpersonal life. I believe that this basic religious claim is very likely to be true. I shall argue that it is not ruled out by any established findings or by any agreed philosophical arguments. Both … [are] realistically conceivable; as also are some forms of the idea of rebirth on this earth… I shall further argue that any religious understanding of human existence… positively requires some kind of immortality belief and would be radically incoherent without it.” (Pg. 11)He adds in the first chapter, “I shall try to show that life after death is not impossible, although to accept it as a possibility depends upon a different understanding of man’s nature than that which underlies the negative dogma; and against those who profess positive knowledge of man’s destiny beyond the grave I shall try to show that a number of very different conceptions of the after-life are theoretically viable and that we have at present no decisive means of choosing between them.” (Pg. 26)He argues, “the conservative and liberal theologians… have been so embarrassed by the traditional Christian hope that they have tried either to suppress the eschatological element within Christianity altogether or else to present it without the scandalous affirmation of personal life after death.” (Pg. 93)He acknowledges, “In rejecting mind/brain identity, then, we accept mind/brain dualism. We accept, that is to say, that mind is a reality of a different kind from matter.” (Pg. 119-120)He suggests, “It is extremely probable that the spirits… who seem to be communicating directly in the mediumistic trance, are some kind of secondary personality of the medium… But when one reads the detailed transcripts of the best sittings with the best mediums… one is at least strongly tempted to think that a distinctive still-living mind was communicating… It is also possible that there is sometimes telepathic contact between a medium and a surviving human person, the result being presented through the machinery of a secondary personality of the medium.” (Pg. 143-144)He points out, “the idea of immortality … is an essential basis for any view which could count towards a solution of the theological problem of human suffering. Such a ‘solution’ must consist, not in denying the reality of suffering, but in showing how it is to be justified or redeemed.” (Pg. 157)He asserts, “A considerable debate has taken place over the years concerning the bodily or visionary, physical or psychological or para-psychological, character of the resurrection. But what is chiefly important for Christians is to see that neither the reality nor the religious significance of the resurrection event depends upon the outcome… of that debate. The essential features of the resurrection gospel recorded in Acts are that God had raised up Jesus, giving him power and authority… and that Jesus was alive…” (Pg. 173) After reviewing differences in the various gospel resurrection accounts, he observes, “It is evident both that these various strands of tradition are incapable of being fully harmonized, and that the New Testament shows a development from a simple proclamation of the living reality of the glorified Lord to detailed stories of his bodily presence and speech, characterized by progressive degeneration from history to legend.” (Pg. 177)He states, “for a conscious creature to undergo physical and mental torture through unending time… is horrible and disturbing beyond words; and the thought of such torment being deliberately inflicted by divine decree is totally incompatible with the idea of God as infinite love… justice could never demand for finite human sins the infinite penalty of eternal pain; such unending torment could never serve any positive or reformative purpose because it never ends; and it renders any coherent Christian theodicy impossible by giving the evils of sin and suffering an eternal lodgment within God’s creation. Accordingly contemporary theologians who do not accept the doctrine of universal salvation usually speak of the finally lost as passing out of existence rather than as endlessly enduring the torments of hell-fire.” (Pg. 200-201)But he presents an argument against Universalism: “God has endowed us with a genuine freedom, so that we cannot be saved without our own positive and voluntary response to him. No doubt God could by omnipotent power override the human will; but so long as he affirms man’s existence as a free and responsible being he cannot fulfil his saving purpose without man’s free co-operation, It therefore remains possible that some will fail to co-operate and will instead become so hardened in a self-enclosed blindness as never to respond to God. Accordingly we are not entitled to make the positive affirmation that all WILL eventually be saved.” (Pg. 242-243)He suggests, “In the parable of the sheep and the goats… Jesus was warning his hearers of the fearful danger that envelops loveless and self-enclosed minds… He was saying bluntly to all who are living in selfish disregard of human need: If you go on like this you will be damned. But in speaking in this way Jesus was not discussing the general question whether anyone … ever will remain in this state beyond the point of no return… It may well be true that at a given point within the temporal process that unless you repent you will surely perish, and yet also true … that in the end all will turn from their wickedness and live. The two truths are formally compatible…” (Pg. 249)He says, “since man has been created by God for God, and is basically oriented towards him, there is no final opposition between God’s saving will and our human nature acting in freedom; and that accordingly the universalist argument is not after all undermined by the fact of human freedom.” (Pg. 254) He adds, “in the end all human life will, in traditional theological language, be ‘saved.’ We must thus affirm the ultimate salvation of all mankind… this is that in which we have affirmed God’s saving love and sovereign power.” (Pg. 259)He proposes, “Reincarnation is not, and has never been, an orthodox Christian belief. But is does not absolutely follow from this that it could never become an orthodox Christian belief. The history of Christianity shows a number of instances of important ideas which at one time formed no part of accepted Christian teaching but which at a later time have been taught in substantial parts, at least, of Christendom.” (Pg. 365) Later, he adds, “There are forms of reincarnation doctrine which MAY be broadly true pictures of what actually happens.” (Pg. 391)He concludes, “the sense of our ultimate belonging together in total community is the unselfish love which the New Testament calls ‘agape.’ … What Christians call the Mystical Body of Christ within the life of God, and Hindus the universal Atman which we all are, and Mahayana Buddhists the self-transcending unity in the Dharma Body of the Buddha, consists of the wholes of ultimately perfected humanity beyond the existence of separate egos.” (Pg. 464)This is a thought-provoking survey, that will be of great interest to anyone studying life after death and reincarnation, as well as the doctrine of Universalism.

John Hick (1922-2012) was an English philosopher of religion and theologian who taught at such institutions as Cornell University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Cambridge University. He has written/edited many other books, such as Evil and the God of Love,The Myth of God Incarnate, etc.He wrote in the Preface to this 1976 book, “the religions of the world declare that this life is part of a much larger existence which transcends our life-span as animal organisms, whether through the continuance of individual consciousnesses or through participation in a greater transpersonal life. I believe that this basic religious claim is very likely to be true. I shall argue that it is not ruled out by any established findings or by any agreed philosophical arguments. Both … [are] realistically conceivable; as also are some forms of the idea of rebirth on this earth… I shall further argue that any religious understanding of human existence… positively requires some kind of immortality belief and would be radically incoherent without it.” (Pg. 11)He adds in the first chapter, “I shall try to show that life after death is not impossible, although to accept it as a possibility depends upon a different understanding of man’s nature than that which underlies the negative dogma; and against those who profess positive knowledge of man’s destiny beyond the grave I shall try to show that a number of very different conceptions of the after-life are theoretically viable and that we have at present no decisive means of choosing between them.” (Pg. 26)He argues, “the conservative and liberal theologians… have been so embarrassed by the traditional Christian hope that they have tried either to suppress the eschatological element within Christianity altogether or else to present it without the scandalous affirmation of personal life after death.” (Pg. 93)He acknowledges, “In rejecting mind/brain identity, then, we accept mind/brain dualism. We accept, that is to say, that mind is a reality of a different kind from matter.” (Pg. 119-120)He suggests, “It is extremely probable that the spirits… who seem to be communicating directly in the mediumistic trance, are some kind of secondary personality of the medium… But when one reads the detailed transcripts of the best sittings with the best mediums… one is at least strongly tempted to think that a distinctive still-living mind was communicating… It is also possible that there is sometimes telepathic contact between a medium and a surviving human person, the result being presented through the machinery of a secondary personality of the medium.” (Pg. 143-144)He points out, “the idea of immortality … is an essential basis for any view which could count towards a solution of the theological problem of human suffering. Such a ‘solution’ must consist, not in denying the reality of suffering, but in showing how it is to be justified or redeemed.” (Pg. 157)He asserts, “A considerable debate has taken place over the years concerning the bodily or visionary, physical or psychological or para-psychological, character of the resurrection. But what is chiefly important for Christians is to see that neither the reality nor the religious significance of the resurrection event depends upon the outcome… of that debate. The essential features of the resurrection gospel recorded in Acts are that God had raised up Jesus, giving him power and authority… and that Jesus was alive…” (Pg. 173) After reviewing differences in the various gospel resurrection accounts, he observes, “It is evident both that these various strands of tradition are incapable of being fully harmonized, and that the New Testament shows a development from a simple proclamation of the living reality of the glorified Lord to detailed stories of his bodily presence and speech, characterized by progressive degeneration from history to legend.” (Pg. 177)He states, “for a conscious creature to undergo physical and mental torture through unending time… is horrible and disturbing beyond words; and the thought of such torment being deliberately inflicted by divine decree is totally incompatible with the idea of God as infinite love… justice could never demand for finite human sins the infinite penalty of eternal pain; such unending torment could never serve any positive or reformative purpose because it never ends; and it renders any coherent Christian theodicy impossible by giving the evils of sin and suffering an eternal lodgment within God’s creation. Accordingly contemporary theologians who do not accept the doctrine of universal salvation usually speak of the finally lost as passing out of existence rather than as endlessly enduring the torments of hell-fire.” (Pg. 200-201)But he presents an argument against Universalism: “God has endowed us with a genuine freedom, so that we cannot be saved without our own positive and voluntary response to him. No doubt God could by omnipotent power override the human will; but so long as he affirms man’s existence as a free and responsible being he cannot fulfil his saving purpose without man’s free co-operation, It therefore remains possible that some will fail to co-operate and will instead become so hardened in a self-enclosed blindness as never to respond to God. Accordingly we are not entitled to make the positive affirmation that all WILL eventually be saved.” (Pg. 242-243)He suggests, “In the parable of the sheep and the goats… Jesus was warning his hearers of the fearful danger that envelops loveless and self-enclosed minds… He was saying bluntly to all who are living in selfish disregard of human need: If you go on like this you will be damned. But in speaking in this way Jesus was not discussing the general question whether anyone … ever will remain in this state beyond the point of no return… It may well be true that at a given point within the temporal process that unless you repent you will surely perish, and yet also true … that in the end all will turn from their wickedness and live. The two truths are formally compatible…” (Pg. 249)He says, “since man has been created by God for God, and is basically oriented towards him, there is no final opposition between God’s saving will and our human nature acting in freedom; and that accordingly the universalist argument is not after all undermined by the fact of human freedom.” (Pg. 254) He adds, “in the end all human life will, in traditional theological language, be ‘saved.’ We must thus affirm the ultimate salvation of all mankind… this is that in which we have affirmed God’s saving love and sovereign power.” (Pg. 259)He proposes, “Reincarnation is not, and has never been, an orthodox Christian belief. But is does not absolutely follow from this that it could never become an orthodox Christian belief. The history of Christianity shows a number of instances of important ideas which at one time formed no part of accepted Christian teaching but which at a later time have been taught in substantial parts, at least, of Christendom.” (Pg. 365) Later, he adds, “There are forms of reincarnation doctrine which MAY be broadly true pictures of what actually happens.” (Pg. 391)He concludes, “the sense of our ultimate belonging together in total community is the unselfish love which the New Testament calls ‘agape.’ … What Christians call the Mystical Body of Christ within the life of God, and Hindus the universal Atman which we all are, and Mahayana Buddhists the self-transcending unity in the Dharma Body of the Buddha, consists of the wholes of ultimately perfected humanity beyond the existence of separate egos.” (Pg. 464)This is a thought-provoking survey, that will be of great interest to anyone studying life after death and reincarnation, as well as the doctrine of Universalism.

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