I am a committed Christian and a complete agnostic about the afterlife. I use “agnostic” in its precise sense: one who does not know. Moreover, I know that I cannot resolve “not knowing” by “believing” – whatever we believe about an afterlife has nothing to do with whether there is one or what it is like.
There is more to say. I think that conventional Christianity’s emphasis on the afterlife for many centuries is one of its negative features. I have often said that if I were to make a list of Christianity’s ten worst contributions to religion, it would be its emphasis on an afterlife, for more than one reason.
When the afterlife is emphasized, it almost inevitable that Christianity becomes a religion of requirements and rewards. If there is a blessed afterlife, it seems unfair to most people that everyone gets one, regardless of how they have lived. So there must be something that differentiates those who get to go to heaven from those who don’t – and that something must be something we do, either believing or behaving or some combination of both. And this counters the central Christian claim that salvation is by grace, not by meeting requirements.
Another problem: the division between those who “measure up” and those who don’t leads to further distinctions: between the righteous and the unrighteous, the saved and the unsaved.
Another problem: an emphasis on the afterlife focuses our attention on the next world rather than on this world. Most of the Bible, on the other hand, focuses our attention on our lives in this world and the transformation of this world. At the heart of the Lord’s Prayer is the petition for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth: your kingdom come on earth, as it already is in heaven. There is nothing in the Lord’s Prayer asking that God take us to heaven when we die.
As yet another reason for my agnosticism about an afterlife: does it involve the survival of personal identity and reunion with those we have known in this life? Are family reunions part of the afterlife? For some people, this is much to be desired, for family has been the primary source of love and joy in this life. But for perhaps an equally large number of people, family has been the primary source of pain and unhappiness. So, are we going to be with those people forever?
What I do affirm about what happens after death is very simple: when we die, we do not die into nothingness, but we die into God. In the words of the apostle Paul, we live unto the Lord and we die unto the Lord. So whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For me, that is enough. My not knowing anything more does not bother me at all.
And I am very wary when the Christian gospel becomes a message about the afterlife. I am convinced that it invariably leads to distortion. This is not the Christian gospel.
Originally published on The Washington Post website.
I am an otherwise traditional, orthodox Christian and I have come to believe the doctrine of hell as it is usually presented is not biblical. I wrote a long article on it at one point though I don’t think I managed to convince many others. It is posted on my website if you want to see it, under theology I think. I also am an Anglican and an admirer of Luther.
Dr.Borg In discussion with a friend I expressed my non-belief in hell and said I didn’t really believe it was key to Jesus’ teaching. He countered with Jesus story in Like 16 : 19-31 about Dives and Lazarus. how shall we explain the teaching? is it metaphorical or due to Luke’s bias toward Greek philosophy? Other explanations? Since like you i grew up as a Lutheran then became an Anglican I like your reference to Martin Luther’s view of the afterlife. I like your recent book’s (Speaking Christian) discussion of the heaven hell paradigm but what about Luke 19?
For me, personally, the fact of the matter is that an afterlife is existentially crucial, almost essential, I’d say, to the Christian view of life. This is not to say, however, that we should make the afterlife in any way the central point in our lives. That is Love with a capital L in my own opinion.
I completely agree with you, however, that we should primarily concern ourselves with present realities.
God Bless,
Tom
Do you know of any forums about this stuff?
Could it be that Jesus left his disciples in the dark with out the slightest notion about what he was referring to when he said “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” or did he give us a glaring example. In John 5: 22 the scripture states “moreover the Father judges no-one but has given all judgment to the Son.” This may be seen as a correction (Ye have heard but I say) from the portral of the prophets. In John 5:45 Jesus reveals His congruence with the Father –“Don’t think I am going to accuse you to the Father your accuser is Moses.” (false hope) Neither His disciples at the time nor down through the centuries took Him at His word so He was left with the choice of dramatizing message in His self-giving. Willis
Hello, Professor Borg,
Thanks very much for this thoughtful post. I just learned of your work while perusing various apologetic texts on Amazon. I have a bit of a newfound interest in rediscovering my faith, precipitated in part by conversations with my brother (a staunch atheist in the mold of Dawkins and Hitchens) as well as a sort of “mini-crisis” centered around recognition of my own mortality. As I’ve navigated those waters and considered the utter improbability of our existence in the light of evolutionary science, etc., I’ve come to a place where the afterlife generally (much less the particulars of it) are of less import than just an awe and thankfulness that I’m here to live out this life. Anything beyond is an incredible bonus.
If you have any recommendations for a good book of your to read first, I’d appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Andrew
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your comment. As you know from my brief essay, I neither deny nor affirm an afterlife – I am happy not to know and not to worry about it. As Martin Luther once commented: the afterlife is God’s business – I don’t have to worry about it. And it’s worth noting that the word “salvation” in the Bible most often refers to something that can happen in this life – a good modern synonym is “transformation” – of ourselves and, ideally, the world. For the world matters to the God of the Bible.
RE which of my books to read first: I generally recommend The Heart of Christianity, as it provides a comprehensive view of how I see Christianity.
With best wishes,
Marcus Borg