Christian teaching on:

heaven

hell

purgatory

election

Different interpretions of heaven, hell and purgatory, including:

heaven, hell and purgatory are actual places where a person may go after death and experience physical and emotional happiness, punishment or purification

Heaven, hell and purgatory are not places but spiritual states that a person experiences as part of their spiritual journey after death

Heaven, hell and purgatory are symbols of a person’s spiritual and moral life on Earth and not places or states after death

Different Christian views of who will be saved, including:

• limited election (that only a few Christians will be saved)

• unlimited election (that all people are called to salvation but not all are saved)

• universalist belief (that all people will be saved)

the above to be studied with reference to the key ideas in Jesus’ parable on Final Judgement, ‘The Sheep and the Goats’ (Matthew 25:31–46)

discuss issues related to Christian ideas on death and the afterlife, including:

whether or not God’s judgement takes place immediately after death or at the end of time

whether or not hell and heaven are eternal

whether or not heaven is the transformation and perfection of the whole of creation

whether or not purgatory is a state through which everyone goes

The Tablet: 18 Feb 2023 ‘An infernal paradox’ – O Rafferty

Dialogue: Thinking about Life After Death: Options and Identity, Edition 3

Dialogue: Life after Death and Personhood, Edition 29

Dialogue: Life after Death, Edition 21 Dialogue: Will I survive my bodily death?, Edition 30

Dialogue: Self, Death and the Afterlife, Edition 38

Dialogue: Life after Death, Edition 43

Dialogue: The possibility of life after death, Edition 44

R4 In Our Time Podcast: The Rapture

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Purgatory

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Calvinism

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Heaven

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Hell

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Dante’s Inferno

R4 In Our Time Podcast: Redemption

R4 In Our Time Podcast: The Apocalypse