“I tell you,” wrote the distinguished English theologian Austen Farrer, “that Christianity cannot for any length of time survive the amputation of such a limb as life to come.” But the notion of personal immortality has not fared well of late; modern science tends to dismiss it outright, and even many contemporary theologians have reduced immortality to an experience of this present life.
Russell Aldwinckle takes a distinctly different position in this thoughtful and stimulating study of life after death. The Christian faith, he holds, demands nothing less than an unflinching belief in personal, individual survival after death—as “real persons,” not merely as the preservation of values in the memory of God.
Critically analyzing the views of such writers as J.A.T. Robinson, I.T. Ramsey, David Edwards, Paul Tillich, and Gordon Kaufman, Aldwinckle deals with a wide range of topics bearing on his central theme: philosophical problems of time, the nature of biblical concepts and of religious language and symbolism, and the nature and status of man in the light of recent scientific thinking. An entire chapter is devoted to a discussion of hell, and another to the state of the person between death and the end of history. In conclusion, the author faces head-on the question of whether the Christian belief in personal immortality leads inevitably to a lack of concern for improving social and political conditions here on earth.
Here are thoughtful, reasoned answers to questions about personal destiny, together with a persuasive defense of the Christian doctrine of immortality.