Death, the End of History, and Beyond: Eschatology in the Bible

Writing about eschatology is an exceedingly risky business, involving as it does our deepest fears and longings. In this fine volume, Greg Carey surveys the biblical canon with intelligence, honesty, and even wit. The results place before readers the diverse witness of the Bible to hope in God’s good future. An important, accessible read!

—Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Helen H. P. Manson Professor Emerita of New Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary

Scripture’s many and varied perspectives on eschatology require slow and careful analysis—especially for those of us who preach and teach. Carey shepherds us through the process in this volume by deftly raising interpretive hurdles and outlining the rhetorical agendas that motivate biblical authors. The proposals in this book are timely and crucial for those who want to reflect on the future that awaits us individually, collectively, and ecologically.

—Donyelle C. McCray, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School

"In Death, the End of History, and Beyond, Greg Carey is a consummate tour guide and teacher, drawing readers into conversation about ultimate questions regarding the very shape and future of the world and the possibility of life beyond death. Modeling an uncommon and refreshing epistemic humility, Carey invites the audience behind the curtain, emphasizing the limits of our knowledge and the rich diversity of ancient and modern views. Like the sources he examines, Carey’s own work is both creative and constructive. It is also eminently practical, foregrounding the consequences of eschatology for moral imagination and equipping preachers to proclaim Christian hope."

—Anathea Portier-Young, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Duke Divinity School

Greg Carey has done us a great service. In this careful examination of the Bible’s multiple eschatological traditions and texts, we are offered a thoughtful and thorough exploration of the biblical writers’ richly differing visions of the future of the world, of history and time as we know it, of what lies beyond death, and, crucially, of how these perspectives impinge on the present. The author also gives good counsel on how these texts and themes may be preached. The approach is exegetical, theological, and deeply pastoral, with rich connections repeatedly drawn between biblical perspectives and our contemporary situations and worldviews. An invaluable resource for preaching and teaching.

—Paul Simpson Duke, Copastor of First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor and author of The Parables: A Preaching Commentary

Death, the End of History, and Beyond

INTERPRETATION

Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church

INTERPRETATION

RESOURCES FOR THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE CHURCH

Samuel E. Balentine, Series Editor

Ellen F. Davis, Associate Editor

Richard B. Hays, Associate Editor

Susan E. Hylen, Associate Editor

Brent A. Strawn, Associate Editor

†Patrick D. Miller, Consulting Editor

OTHER AVAILABLE BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Jaime Clark-Soles, Women in the Bible

C. Clifton Black, The Lord’s Prayer

Markus Bockmuehl, Ancient Apocryphal Gospels

Walter Brueggemann, Money and Possessions

Ronald P. Byars, The Sacraments in Biblical Perspective

Jerome F. D. Creach, Violence in Scripture

Ellen F. Davis, Biblical Prophecy: Perspectives for Christian Theology, Discipleship, and Ministry

Robert W. Jenson, Canon and Creed

Luke Timothy Johnson, Miracles: God’s Presence and Power in Creation

Richard Lischer, Reading the Parables

Patrick D. Miller, The Ten Commandments

GREG CAREY

Death, the End of History, and Beyond: Eschatology in the Bible

INTERPRETATION Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church

© 2023 Greg Carey

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

Book design by Drew Stevens

Cover design by designpointinc.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Carey, Greg, 1965- author.

Title: Death, the end of history, and beyond : Eschatology in the Bible / Greg Carey.

Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2023] | Series: Interpretation: resources for the use of scripture in the church | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Demonstrates how, in all its diversity, the Scriptures center hope in God's action to bring good out of evil now, in our personal journeys through death, and in visions of resurrection and justice restored— Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022058887 (print) | LCCN 2022058888 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664234027 (hardback) | ISBN 9781646982981 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Eschatology—Biblical teaching. | Eschatology—History of doctrines.

Classification: LCC BT821.3 .C37 2023 (print) | LCC BT821.3 (ebook) | DDC 236—dc23/eng/20230126

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058887

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058888

ISBN: 9780664234027 (hardback)

ISBN: 9781646982981 (ebook)

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To Matthew, in Hope

Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:8)

CONTENTS

Series Foreword

Preface

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION: THE DOMAIN OF ESCHATOLOGY

Eschatological Trajectories: The Self

Eschatological Trajectories: The Course of History

The Acceptable Time

What’s Ultimately Real?

Eschatology and Apocalypticism

The Roots of Eschatology

The Perspective of This Book

1. INTERPRETING ESCHATOLOGICAL TEXTS

Heuristic Categories

Diverse Witnesses

Historical and Cultural Contexts

Creation

Conclusion

2. ESCHATOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

First Enoch: An Informative Case Study

Death and Beyond

The Course of History

Looking Ahead

3. ESCHATOLOGY IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES AND IN ANCIENT JUDAISM

Creation

Election, Exodus, and Inheritance

Royal Aspirations

The Day of the Lord

Death and the Afterlife

The Apocalyptic Turn

Conclusion

4. JESUS AND THE GOOD NEWS

Gospels and Jesus

Kingdom and Messiah

Excursus: The Baptism of Jesus

Son of Man

The General Resurrection

The Resurrection of Jesus

The Implications of Jesus’ Resurrection

The Little Apocalypses

Judgment and the Afterlife

Distinctive Voices

The Jesus Question

Integrating Hope

5. FROM PAUL TO REVELATION AND BEYOND

Paul

Paul beyond Paul: The Pseudo-Pauline Epistles

Hebrews

James

The Letters of Peter and Jude

The Johannine Epistles

Revelation

Conclusion

CONCLUSION: COMING TO TERMS

Beyond History

Making Sense with Eschatology: Resurrection and Parousia

Our Language

Holy Futures: Kingdom of God, New Jerusalem, and the Messianic Banquet

Judgment and Universalism

A Final Word: Inaugurated Eschatology

Appendix: Preaching Eschatology

Preaching Eschatology: When It Matters

Preaching the Advent Gospel Lessons

Preaching Revelation

Preaching Hope

Preaching Resurrection Bodily

Preaching the Holy Meal Eschatologically

Bibliography

Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources

Index of Subjects

SERIES FOREWORD

This series of volumes supplements Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. The commentary series offers an exposition of the books of the Bible written for those who teach, preach, and study the Bible in the community of faith. This new series is addressed to the same audience and serves a similar purpose, providing additional resources for the interpretation of Scripture, but now dealing with features, themes, and issues significant for the whole rather than with individual books.

The Bible is composed of separate books. Its composition naturally has led its interpreters to address particular books. But there are other ways to approach the interpretation of the Bible that respond to other characteristics and features of the Scriptures. These other entries to the task of interpretation provide contexts, overviews, and perspectives that complement the book-by-book approach and discern dimensions of the Scriptures that the commentary design may not adequately explore.

The Bible as used in the Christian community is not only a collection of books but also itself a book that has a unity and coherence important to its meaning. Some volumes in this new series will deal with this canonical wholeness and seek to provide a wider context for the interpretation of individual books as well as a comprehensive theological perspective that reading single books does not provide.

Other volumes in the series will examine particular texts, like the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Sermon on the Mount, texts that have played such an important role in the faith and life of the Christian community that they constitute orienting foci for the understanding and use of Scripture.

A further concern of the series will be to consider important and often difficult topics, addressed at many different places in the books of the canon, that are of recurrent interest and concern to the church in its dependence on Scripture for faith and life. So the series will include volumes dealing with such topics as eschatology, women, wealth, and violence.

The books of the Bible are constituted from a variety of kinds of literature such as narrative, laws, hymns and prayers, letters, parables, and miracle stories. To recognize and discern the contribution and importance of all these different kinds of material enriches and enlightens the use of Scripture. Volumes in the series will provide help in the interpretation of Scripture’s literary forms and genres.

The liturgy and practices of the gathered church are anchored in Scripture, as with the sacraments observed and the creeds recited. So another entry to the task of discerning the meaning and significance of biblical texts explored in this series is the relation between the liturgy of the church and the Scriptures.

Finally, there is certain ancient literature, such as the Apocrypha and the noncanonical gospels, that constitutes an important context to the interpretation of Scripture itself. Consequently, this series will provide volumes that offer guidance in understanding such writings and explore their significance for the interpretation of the Protestant canon.

The volumes in this second series of Interpretation deal with these important entries into the interpretation of the Bible. Together with the commentaries, they compose a library of resources for those who interpret Scripture as members of the community of faith. Each of them can be used independently for its own significant addition to the resources for the study of Scripture. But all of them intersect the commentaries in various ways and provide an important context for their use. The authors of these volumes are biblical scholars and theologians who are committed to the service of interpreting the Scriptures in and for the church. The editors and authors hope that the addition of this series to the commentaries will provide a major contribution to the vitality and richness of biblical interpretation in the church.

The Editors

PREFACE

Nobody knows what happens after we die. I wish I’d recorded that quote immediately after hearing it, as I’m not sure I have it just right. Yet I’m just as mindful of friends who describe their absolute confidence that a deceased loved one now resides in heaven. Presumably, if I were to reply that no one could possibly know what lies beyond this life, they’d reply, Yes, I do.

Eschatology involves questions such as what lies beyond death, the sacred shape of the cosmos, and the direction of history. Who could know the truth about any of these things? Some Christians think they do, but most of us do not. I want to believe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was correct when he said, The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. In the face of climate change, resurgent racism, and widening inequality, I’m not so sure.

So now you’re an expert on eschatology. Must be nice to know all those things. I don’t know these things, and I don’t claim to. Throughout my career I’ve written about the book of Revelation and other apocalyptic literature as biblical scholars generally do. We interpret the texts as literary works, taking account of their social, historical, and cultural contexts. We trace literary patterns, rhetorical arguments, and religious meaning. We often write about specific questions. Where did the Son of Man concept come from? How do we account for Revelation’s violent imagery? Did Paul change his mind about the afterlife? We biblical scholars relish the Bible’s historical contingency and capacity to include diverse, even conflicting, points of view. We generally avoid making broad theological pronouncements of our own.

For these reasons I was at once honored and frightened when Brent Strawn, now of Duke University Divinity School, invited me to contribute this volume to the Interpretation Resources series. I felt honored because I highly respect Brent and the series general editor Sam Balentine of Union Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The Interpretation Resources series features authoritative volumes by distinguished authors. But I also felt intimidated. Very few people are expert in the full range of literature and scholarship addressed in this book. I am not one of them. More importantly, I was reluctant to cross that divide between textual analysis and the theological synthesis this project requires.

I accepted the task for two primary reasons. First, biblical scholarship constitutes a fundamental dimension of my Christian vocation. Although I am a layperson, I’ve been preaching since I was sixteen years old and am active in a variety of ministries. I teach in a theological seminary, preparing people for Christian leadership. This project has called me to pursue this vocation with integrity. Although I think about the Bible’s relationship with theology every day, it’s high time I thought a single theological issue all the way through, particularly a set of issues that lie so close to my body of research. Second, I knew this requirement would force me to learn a great deal, acquainting myself with texts and scholarship about which I needed to know more.

In the end, I am profoundly grateful for this experience. I have learned much, although it remains true that I’m more impressed by the gaps in my scholarship than by its content. I’ve changed my mind about questions that are important to scholars and issues that matter to believers—topics that sometimes, but not always, overlap. Most rewarding, this book advances some proposals for how contemporary Christians might imagine the kingdom or reign of God, the resurrection, the return of Jesus, the course of history, and the judgment of God. Indeed, no one knows the ultimate truth about any of these things. But I have found a voice for speaking to them.

Without question, the research underlying this volume is uneven. It covers an enormous amount of territory. In some areas I knew the primary and secondary literature quite well. In others I was generally familiar with the flow of the conversation. In still others I had a fuzzy familiarity: I knew just a little more than a well-rounded liberal arts graduate should. The Covid-19 pandemic has restricted my access to valuable material, and sometimes it shows. So far as I’m aware, I’ve given credit where credit is due for the perspectives and information that shape this study. At some points I hope to add insight or new information to the conversation. I would suspect the primary value of the volume lies in three areas. First, it attempts to make sense of a vast amount of wisdom from predecessors and colleagues. Second, it provides one model for what it means to grapple with the Bible theologically. Most importantly, it offers a constructive set of proposals regarding eschatology that is deeply informed by the many biblical witnesses.

I extend my gratitude to Susan Hylen of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, the Interpretation Resources editor who worked most closely with this volume. She is a wonderful colleague, and this volume is all the richer for her generosity and insight. I am grateful to her and to Sam Balentine for their encouragement, their patience, and their editorial wisdom. Julie Mullins, an editor with Westminster John Knox, has made substantive positive suggestions and offered invaluable counsel, and Bob Land surely stands among the saints for his editorial wisdom and care. Kendra-Grace Love, a Candler alumna, contributed to some of the technical aspects of bringing this book together.

Some other colleagues have contributed to this project directly; others may not know they deserve my thanks. These include Eric Barreto of Princeton Theological Seminary, Lisa Bowens of Princeton Theological Seminary, David A. Burnett of Marquette University, Jaime Clark-Soles of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, Beverly Gaventa of Baylor University, Mark Goodacre of Duke University, Anathea Portier-Young of Duke Divinity School, Rob Seesengood of Albright College, and Matthew Skinner of Luther Seminary. Myka Kennedy Stephens, seminary librarian of Lancaster Theological Seminary, and her staff, including Tim Whitney, made materials available to me under the challenging circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Jamie Schindler, Lancaster’s former faculty assistant, has provided both clerical skills and editorial expertise. My Lancaster colleague Julia O’Brien consults on every significant project I undertake, while Lee Barrett has contributed invaluable cautions and resources from the world of academic theology. Lancaster Theological Seminary provided me with a fall 2019 sabbatical leave that proved absolutely essential for the completion of this project, and I extend my gratitude to our board of trustees, to President Emerita Carol Lytch, to our former dean David Mellott, now president of Christian Theological Seminary, and to Dean Vanessa Lovelace for their support.

My family deserves gratitude as well. My wife, Jennifer Craighead Carey, gifts me with love, wisdom, and clarity. For too many months we’ve largely worked in the same space in our home, accommodating one another through Zoom sessions and other demands but also enjoying some precious time to go on walks and sip warm drinks. My stepsons, Andrew and Isaac Schlager, also endured sharing our common workspace for many of these months, and graciously so. My daughters, Erin Carey and Emily Carey, support my work enthusiastically, while my incredible grandson, Matthew, informs me that he is always sticking his tongue out at me, even in his sleep. Given the times we’re living in and the challenges we face, how could I not dedicate this book to Matthew? He, like every other child, bears the promise of life, vitality, and hope—and the challenge to leave him and billions like him a world in which they may flourish.

ABBREVIATIONS

Introduction

The Domain of Eschatology

Eschatology is a big word, and not just because it would stump lots of spelling bee contestants. Its eleven-letter spelling suggests the scope of the question: where are things headed, ultimately?

We might ask the question about ourselves as individuals: where are things headed for you and me? The most recent Pew Religious Landscape Study, conducted in 2014, found that 72 percent of Americans believed in heaven, a ratio that had dropped just a little from 2007, when 74 percent affirmed that belief. African Americans are more likely to believe in heaven than are other racial groups. Belief in hell was less popular—but more common than I had expected, at 58 percent. Lots of people believe in an afterlife. Those numbers will continue to decline unless something changes, as younger Americans are less likely to believe in heaven or hell.¹ Nevertheless, most Americans believe in some form of afterlife. It’s reasonable to imagine that this belief proves important to them at some points in their lives.

It is unclear how deeply afterlife belief derives from formal religious teaching. Many people experience visitations of deceased loved ones, experiences that generally have little or nothing to do with the teachings of their own religious traditions. These visitations might involve seeing or hearing from their loved ones. Sometimes they take the form of omens: mystical signs that indicate the loved one’s presence. Every week millions of Christians confess they believe in the resurrection of the body. In my experience few actually believe in a resurrected body, hoping instead that we have immortal souls. Many suppose the soul escapes from the body at death, leaving the body disposable. Think how often we hear, I bet she’s smiling down on us right now. Even most evangelical Christians, whose churches teach that faith in Jesus is the only way to enter heaven, believe all people will enter heaven, where they will reunite with their loved ones.² Perhaps formal church teaching holds less influence than wishful thinking.

But eschatology is a big word, and our individual fates account for only one dimension of the question. A second question involves the course of history: where are things headed? The question forces us to ask what we believe about God, specifically whether God will bring all things together in a way that is peaceful and just. Some Christians argue that God is moving the world toward progress and will continue doing so until the return of Jesus. Others maintain that human sin is intractable, so history’s only hope lies in a dramatic intervention by God. Most adherents of the Bible prophecy movement, also known as millenarians, hold this second view. Still others suggest that God is as present and active right now as God will ever be. Many biblical traditions address the question of God’s aims for history.

A third set of questions lies at the intersection where eschatology meets cosmology: what is ultimately real? The question seems vague because it is. Nevertheless, in a biblical context, belief in an afterlife implies expectations regarding souls and bodies, heavens and hells, and supernatural beings like angels and demons—not to mention convictions concerning the nature of God. Jewish and especially Christian eschatology took a distinctive turn with the emergence of apocalyptic literature in the third and second centuries BCE, where these questions garnered a great deal of attention. Although they do not represent a primary focus of this book, there’s no avoiding questions of ultimate reality.

So eschatology is a long word that covers a lot of territory. Personal eschatology involves what lies beyond death, where we’re headed as individuals. Historical eschatology poses the Where is the world heading? question. Our third category, cosmology, deals with realities that lie beyond our phenomenal world, transcendent things we cannot know through our five senses. Personal and historical eschatology get more attention in popular religion, but a good deal of biblical and related literature explores the heavens and the beings who dwell there. When you think about it, our cosmological assumptions undergird anything we might imagine concerning the destinies of human beings, of civilizations, and of the world.

It’s natural to ask What does the Bible say? about such things. But if eschatology is a big word, the Bible is a big book: more accurately, a small library. The Bible contains diverse points of view, including ideas that developed over the course of centuries. When it comes to eschatology, the Bible says lots of things—things that don’t all cohere. The Bible does not provide a unified perspective on the topics we’re investigating. Nor does this book attempt a grand synthesis, which would violate the integrity of the diverse testimonies included in the Bible. Instead, we offer proposals for contemporary readers who desire to interpret the Bible’s eschatological language faithfully.

The Bible is scarcely the only source that informs people’s eschatological outlooks. Other religious and spiritual traditions have their own views. And the secular world is filled with eschatological discourse. People find comfort in their own beliefs about what lies beyond death. Historical eschatologies range from the pervasive belief in human progress to gloom and doom. Will climate change put an end to the human experiment? Have we so outsmarted ourselves with artificial intelligence that machines will bring our demise? Scientists have long speculated about our vulnerability to a grand epidemic even more devastating than one we’re experiencing as I write. Some people fear the human race has outrun its boundaries; others will tell you the market holds the solutions to our problems. As for cosmology, yes, you can take courses about angels and archangels that have almost nothing to do with conventional theology—but no, generally not for academic credit.

From a biblical or theological perspective, eschatology involves more than a belief in progress or concern that we mortals will bring about our own demise. It’s more than optimism. The core of theological eschatology is God. Israelite, Jewish, and Christian traditions confess that God is faithful and creative, that God endowed the world with beauty and abundance, that God created humankind for community with one another and with God, and that God actively works to bend evil toward good. Apart from God, there is no biblical eschatology.³

As public biblical scholarship, this book aims to survey the broad range of biblical perspectives on eschatological topics. More often than not, other scholars have already spoken to the texts and the questions addressed here. If this book contributes unique value, it will rarely, though occasionally, lie in primary insights concerning the biblical texts. The contribution should lie in the ways we gather and assess the biblical materials on the whole, and in the ways we make sense of them together. To repeat, making sense of the Bible does not necessarily mean presenting a grand doctrinal synthesis.

My perspective is Christian, specifically Protestant, and theological. I care about eschatology. I believe ancient Israelite, Jewish, and Christian testimonies on eschatological matters have value. They remain relevant. They inform our faith. They present us with assumptions and questions we may find strange—and in doing so expand our perspectives in life-giving ways. Although that surprise may feel disorienting at first, by engaging these materials we may find ourselves thinking and behaving differently.

Years ago I opened a book with a quote from Umberto Eco’s fantasy novel Baudolino: There is nothing better than imagining other worlds . . . to forget the painful one we live in. At least I thought so then. I hadn’t realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.⁴ I choose to agree with Baudolino. The stories we tell, the word pictures we paint, and the metaphors we promote bear real-life fruit.

For example, almost everyone who reads this book will experience surprise at some of the perspectives reflected in the Bible. One thing I’ve come to appreciate only in the past several years is that biblical authors generally take death seriously. They neither deny nor evade death, not even by appealing to notions like the resurrection or eternal life. I’ve come to appreciate this sensibility. If we truly acknowledge death as the last enemy, as Paul does (1 Cor. 15:26), we may be less prone to rush through grief, more outraged by cultural systems that devalue human life. This is pure speculation, but perhaps Christians who are quick to talk about the afterlife are less likely to regard health care as a basic human right. Maybe those who mourn (Matt. 5:4; see also Luke 6:25) will protect life more fiercely.

The Bible’s diverse viewpoints offer a second benefit. So long as we don’t rush to develop a single rigid view of eschatological matters, we may benefit from imagining things in multiple ways. To offer another example, the Bible includes multiple images of judgment. We find judgment in this world and judgment at the end of the age, and we observe judgment applied to individuals, to nations, and to the cosmos. Scattered here and there are resources for universal hope. With the Bible itself extending hospitality to so many points of view, perhaps the church might do so as well. Even conflicting visions can be instructive. The notion of divine judgment affirms God’s commitment to justice. While some of us may fear divine examination—I do—we may also extend our imaginations beyond the individual to the social. We may hear the testimony that justice is good news for most of the world’s inhabitants, hard truth for others. Meanwhile, the hints of universalism remind us never to give up on God’s mercy. We don’t have to choose.

Although my perspective is theological, public scholarship addresses a much broader audience that may not share my convictions, assumptions, and values. My theological approach does not conform to the movement that identifies itself as the theological interpretation of Scripture. As I understand it, in that movement theological norms precede and govern interpretation: interpretation speaks from and for the church, and it requires adherence to those already given creedal norms. In my view public scholarship, theological or not, must rely upon arguments and evidence that aim to persuade a much broader audience that embraces people who do not share a common point of view. Our considerations include historical and cultural context, the processes of literary development, the interaction of canonical literature with a host of other texts and cultural artifacts, and the literary shape of the biblical and related materials. As a Protestant I do privilege the Protestant Bible, but I am reading it in conversation with a much broader range of materials. Extracanonical and apocryphal texts often serve as background for a project like this one, but their own literary integrity must be honored. The more we learn about biblical and related literature, the more we appreciate that our notion of a canon is far removed from the imaginations and activities of ancient Jewish and Christian authors. That means that while the biblical canon provides the focus for this project, we will read the Bible not as the goal of extrabiblical literature but as participating in rich and diverse ancient conversations.

Eschatological Trajectories: The Self

The hope for life beyond death stands as Christian orthodoxy, even if many modern believers have their doubts. But a close look at our worship books indicates a measure of ambiguity on what that hope entails. Reciting the Apostles’ Creed, we confess the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. The Nicene Creed voices hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. One natural reading of both confessions would view the resurrection of the dead as the point of entry to the life that follows. I suspect that’s what both confessions mean. But in my experience many people think of eternal life as something that begins immediately after death, with little thought toward a resurrection of the body that precedes it. Most contemporary believers assume that we have an immortal soul that departs from the body at death and moves directly on to glory. Thus, a couple of questions surface. First, how does eternal life relate to our embodiment? And second, do we enter the presence of God immediately upon our deaths, or must we wait, perhaps truly dead, until a great moment of common resurrection?

Beyond the creeds, we might also discern mixed messages in our funeral liturgies. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer features language about a future resurrection alongside language suggesting that we enter God’s presence immediately upon death. The Litany at the Time of Death includes a prayer that the deceased will rest with the saints where God dwells, while it also affirms hope in a future resurrection.⁵

We find this kind of tension in other denominational worship resources. The United Church of Christ’s Book of Worship includes an Order for the Time of Dying. There we encounter prayers suggesting hope for a grand future reunion along with those expressing hope that death brings people immediately into God’s presence.⁶

The language we’re considering is evocative rather than precise. Perhaps the Episcopal and UCC liturgists were careful in avoiding the kind of precision that leads to contradiction.

The liturgies reflect the New Testament’s own ambiguity. Luke’s Jesus tells a man crucified alongside him that today they will both enter Paradise (23:43), while Matthew depicts very dead people rising from their graves at the moment of Jesus’ crucifixion (27:52–53). Even Paul sends mixed messages. He voices the expectation that he will remain alive upon Jesus’ return, while believers who are dead will be resurrected at that moment (1 Thess. 4:14–17; 1 Cor. 15:51–52), and he suggests that death will usher him directly into the presence of Christ (Phil. 1:21–23). Maybe Paul changed his mind?

We consider the diversity of biblical views regarding the afterlife later in this book. For the moment, it’s enough to recognize how ambiguities within our tradition express themselves in the popular imagination. Many people wonder what, if anything, lies beyond this life, especially in times of grief and as we grapple with our own mortality. Dale C. Allison, a scholar who knows as much about biblical eschatology as anyone, acknowledges that many people prefer the notion of an immortal soul over the metaphor of resurrection, a trend that accelerated during the Enlightenment.⁷ Perhaps our afterlife hopes amount to wishful thinking. Julius Caesar built a strategy upon the observation that people readily believe what they want to believe, a quote at once obvious and profound.⁸ Biblical authors deploy multiple, even conflicting images to imagine this reality. This book aims to explicate those views to the best of our ability. Acknowledging we cannot attain certain knowledge on the subject, and accounting for the conventions of biblical writing, we explore what value these metaphors have for shaping our own reflections. Hopefully we can think about our individual fates in ways that do more than satisfy our own anxieties. If we’re familiar with conversations about loved ones looking down at us from heaven or resting in the arms of Jesus, we also have the opportunity to imagine an afterlife in which wrongs meet their resolution, community flourishes, and creation is renewed. We are responsible for the biblical metaphors we lift up and the ones we minimize. This book offers resources for dealing with multiple, even conflicting ways of imagining ultimate realities.

Speaking of wishful thinking, many people—including serious theologians—believe an afterlife is necessary because it can compensate for the prevalence of injustice in this life. Indeed, that may be precisely how resurrection hope emerged: as a response to injustice.⁹ Without question many individuals live and die without experiencing as much justice as injustice. There are obvious cases, like persons who experience brief lives of intense emotional or physical pain. But there’s also the balance of human existence. In his brilliant history of humankind, Yuval Noah Harari demonstrates that while the agricultural revolution created the conditions for rapid population growth among humans, it also created structures that amplified domination and inequality. Once people learned to cultivate land and to store foodstuffs, it became possible for some to appropriate the land and labor of others, passing down their advantages from generation to generation. Likewise, large-scale war began to make sense as a means of acquiring and defending resources. Over the millennia, humankind grew both more violent and more stratified. Most people, in fact, live in states of permanent oppression.¹⁰ This reality challenges belief in God’s goodness. After all, we’d expect a just god to create a fairer world for that deity’s creatures. Many hope an afterlife will rectify these inequities.

Eschatological Trajectories: The Course of History

Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of saying, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. He said it so many times and in so many places, the saying occurs with variations. Is it the arc of the moral universe or the moral arc of the universe that bends toward justice? The basic metaphor seems to go back to Theodore Parker, the celebrated Unitarian and abolitionist.

In their ways Parker and King were laying out an eschatological vision for the trajectory of history. Confronted with slavery (Parker) and Jim Crow (King), both preachers voiced a confidence that justice would finally have its way. Parker did so in the tentative manner typical of Unitarian speculation, while King pronounced the sentiment with the conviction of a civil rights evangelist.¹¹ I suppose we’ll never know whether either preacher believed the statement literally: Dr. King, do you actually believe that things are getting better and justice will eventually prevail? I suspect they did. For his part, King ruled out the strangely irrational notion that time will eventually kill all ills, but he also believed that God is active in history.¹² Neither King nor Parker was speaking to a philosophy seminar: both preachers were calling people to action.

One flavor of eschatological discourse trades in visions of history’s ultimate resolution. Prophetic and apocalyptic literature present these scenarios as products of divine revelation: Thus says the LORD and Then I saw. Scholars still debate the degree to which authentic mystical experience underlies such texts, but one thing is beyond debate: claims regarding the final course of history begin with convictions about God’s character and purposes. A just God who creates a good world, elects Israel, and resurrects Jesus (for early Christian authors) will not allow injustice to go on forever. In biblical literature the moral universe does not have an arc; it has a Creator.

As with Parker and King, biblical eschatological discourse does not end in pie-in-the-sky optimism. Historically oriented eschatology comes with a call to faithful action. Millennial hope—that is, hope that history is moving toward its blessed resolution, and soon—constitutes one essential stream in American colonial history. The Puritans who settled Massachusetts Bay interpreted their project in