Heaven
Heaven is the final state of those who are with God after death. For Christians, it is above all the beatific vision.[1]
Blessedness
Both Plato and Thomas Aquinas describe the final good in terms of blessedness.[1] Aquinas held that the blessed in heaven will have glorified bodies.[1]
Physical pictures of heaven
Many religious descriptions of heaven are strikingly physical. This raises puzzles, especially for belief in bodily resurrection: what kind of bodies would people have, and what kind of place would heaven be?[1] Philosophers such as Mark Johnston ask why bodily resurrection, by God preserving or reconstituting matter, should not be allowed.[2]
Paradise in Zoroastrianism
In Zoroastrianism, the Gathas promise the good a "house of song", also called the "best existence" (vahishta ahu). The phrase passed into Middle Persian as vahisht and into modern Persian as behesht.[3] A Sasanian-era inscription expresses the hope: "May paradise be the highest reward."[4]
The English word "paradise" itself has Iranian roots. Old Persian pairidaeza, an enclosure or walled garden, entered Greek as paradeisos and was then used in the Septuagint for "garden".[3][5] Rose suggests that the Persian royal gardens may have been linked with ideas of final perfection.[3]
In a later Zoroastrian text, the Arda Wiraz Namag, the priest Wiraz tours both heaven and hell, and there is also a neutral, in-between place called hammistagan.[4]
Heaven without heaven
Not all traditions look to heaven. A Buddhist catechism by Olcott describes Buddhism as offering happiness "without an objective heaven", with Nirvana attainable in this life.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Heaven". Philosophy of Religion A-Z. Palgrave Macmillan. 2016. pp. 87–88.
- ↑ Draper, Paul, ed. (2019). "Chapter 4 (Mark Johnston)". Current Controversies in Philosophy of Religion. Routledge.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rose, Jenny (2014). "Zoroastrians Present and Past". Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. I.B. Tauris.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rose, Jenny (2014). "Eranshahr: The Sasanian Center of the World". Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. I.B. Tauris.
- ↑ Rose, Jenny (2014). "A Zoroastrian Presence from Seleucia to Sistan: The Parthian Period". Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. I.B. Tauris.
- ↑ Patton, Kimberley C.; Ray, Benjamin C., eds. (2000). "Contested Identities". A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Postmodern Age. University of California Press. p. 59.