Eternity and the Afterlife

Author(s): D. P. Walker
Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 27 (1964), pp. 241-250
Published by: The Warburg Institute
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 ETERNITY AND THE AFTERLIFE

By D. P. Walker
n this article I shall first try to compare the Neoplato
and eternity with the orthodox Christian doctrine, and I
the latter, owing mainly to the Christian afterlife, is me
factory because it is untidy. Then I shall very briefly m
reforms to the afterlife proposed in the seventeenth cen
to correct this defect. Finally, I shall describe the refor
little-known Cambridge Platonists, Peter Sterry and Jer
Before going further I must try to explain what I mean
unsatisfactory' and 'untidy'. One of the essential functio
system is to provide a framework for ordering our though
enable us to put a bewildering chaos into some sort of pa
work is felt to be unsatisfactory if its pattern is unnecessa
it contains arbitrary and asymmetrical features-because
perform its function of ordering a chaos; and there will
to abandon the framework altogether, or to eliminate the o
A metaphysical system may of course be unsatisfactory
are always logical stresses and strains within it,1 and it
optimistic or depressingly pessimistic. Such defects also
as dynamic factors in the history of changes in metaphysic
I am not primarily concerned with them, but mainly
simplicity and elegance of the pattern of these metaphys
In describing the Neoplatonic and Christian schemes of
I shall considerably simplify them, because I wish only
large-scale differences between them. I shall base these
on Plato and Proclus, and Boethius and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas' discussion of the eternity of God, in
logica,2 is founded on the famous definition in Boethius' Con

Aeternitas . . . est interminabilis vitae tota simul et

(Eternity is the total and at the same time perfect po
life.)

This notion, already present in Augustine's discourse on time in the Confes-

sions,4 has two distinct ingredients: first, a non-successive, therefore non-
temporal mode of experience ('tota simul et perfecta possessio'); secondly, a
life of infinite duration ('interminabilis vita').
Boethius, in the De Trinitate,5 explains the first notion by contrasting it
with human experience, which consists of a present moment always fading
into the past and being replaced by the future. The eternal mode of experience
consists of the present moment extended over the whole life, a nunc stans or
permanens (a stationary or enduring 'now'), as opposed to our nunc movens
1 Cf. R. G. Collingwood, An Essay on Meta- 4 Augustine, Confessions, xi, c. vii seq. Cf.
physics, I1940, pp. 48, 74-76. F. H. Brabant, Time and Eternity in Christian
2 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Thought (Bampton Lectures), I936.
q. x. 5 Boethius, De Trinitate, Iv.
3 Boethius, Consolatio Philosophiae, v, pr. vi.
241

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 242 D. P. WALKER

(moving 'now'). God's experienc

immutable. The second notion in the definition is that of an infinite series of
states or processes, which may be successive as in our ordinary temporal
experience. Boethius gives as an example the Aristotelian conception of an
eternal universe, which, he says, should not properly be called eternal,6
for it does not comprehend and embrace all the space of its life together,
though that life be infinite, but it has not the future time which is yet to
come.

Christian eternity, then, combines these two notions:

ence, and infinite duration. This duration includes the
existence of the created world, but is infinitely grea
Christian created world had a beginning, though, as w
has no end. Part, but not all, of the 'interminabilis v
'tota simul et perfecta possessio' is the sum of our succes
ence, in this life and the next.
This Christian conception of eternity, formulated by
and Thomas, is usually said to derive from Plato and t
is certainly historically correct in some measure; but t
gencies between Platonic and Christian conceptions of
relation between eternity and temporal existence. They
assertion of a non-successive state or existence which transcends our time-
bound, variable, transitory life. But the eternal ideas of Plato, the etern
hypostases of Plotinus, the eternal henads of Proclus, do not have any experi-
ence or knowledge of our temporal existence. Our existence participates
theirs, is governed and formed by them; but they do not see our changin
fading lives spread out like a map; they know of this world only its simpl
immutable causes, principles, forms, which is what they are themselves. Th
is to say: the content of the knowledge of Neoplatonic eternal beings consis
only of eternal objects, whereas the content of the Christian God's knowledge
consists both of such objects (at least for platonizing Christians) and of ou
lives and world, and of our afterlives. The reason for this difference is not fa
to seek: the Incarnation, by which eternity united itself to time.
We have by now accumulated several different kinds of eternity:
(i) successive eternity: an infinite series of successive goings-on-our own
ordinary experience extended to infinity.
(2) Christian eternity: God's immutable existence and His non-successi
knowledge of all lives and of eternal objects, if any.
(3) Platonic eternity: eternal principles, which have immutable existence an
non-successive knowledge, but only of eternal objects.
It will be convenient to make the last two into species of the genus 'still
eternity', to borrow a Boehmenist term, since they have in common the
characteristic of non-successiveness.
Although Neoplatonic influences are certainly of great importance in the
formation of Christian eternity, we must remember that some notion of non-
6 Boethius, Cons. Phil., ibid.,: 'Non enim
prehendit atque complectitur, sed futura
nondum transacta jam non habet.'
totum simul infinitae licet vitae spatium corn-

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 ETERNITY AND THE AFTERLIFE 243
successive, still eternity is likely to appear anyway
courages or allows mysticism. The records left us by
many state, that, in those moments when a saint se
glass darkly, he feels that he is transcending time, th
instant a harmony which includes and reconciles all the
transitory life. And such experiences are, I think, n
religion-among poets, musicians and lovers. Non-suc
then, is not just an odd metaphysical fancy inherited
Platonism, but it is grounded on a persistent and wi
phenomenon.
The Neoplatonists believed in the successive eternit
human souls.7 Unlike Christian Platonists they did no
of the creation in the Timaeus as an expanded version
Genesis. The everlasting course of the world is cycli
descend into earthly bodies and on death re-ascend to
Some souls, instead of ascending on death, descend s
where they are justly and curatively punished. Accor
as far as I know, to the Neoplatonists, a few very wi
for ever; in the Phaedo we are told about the boiling
Tartarus and that8

those souls which seem to be incurable because of the greatness of th

crimes, having committed many great acts of sacrilege, or many wic
murders, or any other such things, these their fitting destiny throws in
Tartarus, whence they never come out.
But more usually they eventually re-ascend to our world, are reincarna
and go on circulating.9
The successive eternity of this world is conceived as being wholly dep
dent on the still eternity of the intelligible world: as Plato describes it in
Timaeus,1o it is
an everlasting image moving according to number, an image of the etern
which stays still in unity.
This image moves in a circle-circular movement being the closest imag
eternity because it has no beginning nor end. Not only do the transmigra
souls endlessly revolve, but also the successive ages of history repeat themse
in an endless cycle, like the wheeling heavens. Within this successive eter
things have a beginning and an end, are born and die; but it is unthink
that the created world as a whole and human souls should have either a begin
ning or an end-the circle would be broken, the cycle could not be repeat
and their successive duration would not be a true copy of the ideal,
eternity.
One way of representing this scheme diagrammatically is shown in Fi
overleaf. This is quite simple and tidy. The two kinds of eternity are par
S Proclus, The Elements of Theology, ed.301-10.
E. R.
Dodds, i1933, pp. 50-55, 226-29. 10xo Plato, Timaeus, 37 D: ' ~ivov-ros atcvos &v
8 Plato, Phaedo, 13 E. vil Kcrr' &ptOp6v touacv alcbvIov EIK6ova.' Cf. F. M
9 Proclus, El. of Th., ed. cit., pp. 172-85,
Cornford, Plato's Cosmology, 1937, pp. 102 ff

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 244 D. P. WALKER
and coextensive; and the human
on and on and on and on and on.

~4S',s"-ve Still Etri,

/ ~~~~o, ON?Le/z

, !t

,.ar it
-COO

Figure I

Christian eternity, completely non-successive existence and experience,

belongs only to God. But good angels and the elect after death share in this
eternity in so far as they enjoy the beatific vision and as their natures are
unchangingly fixed in a state of grace. Successiveness comes into their ex-
perience as a possibility, not as a necessity; they can, but need not, change
from one object of contemplation to another, and they can move in space.
Thomas uses the terms aevum and aeviternus to designate this state, which is the
mean between aeternitas and tempus.11 In contrast to the inhabitants of heaven,
the damned are wholly in time. Their punishment is varied and is experienced
successively. Hell, therefore, can only loosely be called eternal, in that the
succession of torments has no end :12
12 Ibid., I, q. x, a. iii: 'ignis inferni dicitur
11 Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Th., I, q. x, a. v,
vi. aeternus propter interminabilitatem tantum.

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 ETERNITY AND THE AFTERLIFE 245
hell-fire is said to be eternal only on account of
change in their punishments, witness Job xxiv, 19
snows they shall pass to excessive heat). Hence i
eternity, but rather time.
This world had a beginning, when God created i
at the Last Judgment. Human souls also have a be
traducianists, deriving them all from Adam, or cr
Thomas that each soul is separately created, huma
from eternity-nor have angels, good or bad. But n
Now let us look at a diagram of the Christian sch
the complete serpent of still eternity cannot be show
senting the aevum and hell extend to infinity and wo
The aevum and hell cannot be represented by circ
have no end, they have a beginning.

successive stillEt

/ Aavum.

/ Partially non-suc

Finite,successivwaima.This World
Creation o\ Last Jud9ment

Successive Eternity. Hell. Damned E- Dzvilso

Figure 2
Here we have four different kinds of duration:

(i) the non-successive, still eternity of God, without beginning or end.

(2) the partially non-successive eternity of heaven, with a beginning but no
end.
(3) the finite successive time of our world, with both a beginning and an end.
(4) the successive eternity of hell, with a beginning but no end.
The Christian scheme compared with the Neoplatonic one thus has four kinds
of duration instead of two, while it omits one kind altogether: the successive
eternity of this world, without beginning or end. And none of the Christian
durations is cyclical. The dubious, uneasy situation of the blessed, half in and
half out of eternity, is not a disadvantage as compared with the Neoplatonic
set-up, in which the human souls who have ascended to the intell gible world
Est tamen in poenis eorum transmutatio,ing as well as burning the damned; it is not
secundum illud lob. 24. Ad nimium calorem nowadays thought to refer to the afterlife.
transibunt ab aquis nivium. Unde in inferno13 I have omitted purgatory and the limbus
non est vera aeternitas, sed magis tempus.' patrum, which would make the scheme still
more complicated.
This verse of Job was the main text for freez-

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 246 D. P. WALKER

are also in a half-way position

difficult to explain why they d
evidently designed in order to i
half animal, half God, both trans
perhaps at a real disadvantage in h
but no end-what the Scholastics c
These aeternitates a parte post i
scheme. Why is all the successive
the left? that is, why not an aete
have no beginning but an end)?
eternity with neither beginnin
anyone thinking in Platonic term
seem highly paradoxical; such a
absurdly inadequate image of th
This Christian scheme is, I sug
because of the afterlife. One wo
made to tidy it up, to make it m
means of modifying the orthod
Neoplatonic influence on Christ
was made early in the history
Principiis, expounded a Christia
eternal, cyclical created world, w
earth, to hell and back again-per
Very few other attempts were m
various suggestions for reformin
The main problem was to elimina
this was usually done by asserting
ing the aevum backwards to inf
giving it an end as well as a begi
Henry More, the Platonist, for
soul, but retained the orthodox
chiliastic Pietist, brought hell t
accept pre-existence.17 There w
scheme: two friends of Henry
Van Helmont, proposed an etern
circulation of souls.18 Only one
eternity of both heaven and hell:
This was a very unpopular sugg
annihilating the damned, and a
gether, even for God.20 They t
I am not of course suggesting th
eternity was the main motive for
connected with theodicy-thoug
14 Cf. Proclus, El.17 ofIbid., xIv.
Th., ed. cit., pp. 3
305- 18s Ibid., viii, (iv).
15 See D. P. Walker, The Decline of Hell,
19 Ibid., vi.
1964, Ch. i, section (iii). 20 Ibid., v.
16 Ibid., viii, (ii).

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 ETERNITY AND THE AFTERLIFE 247
theodicy and schemes of time and eternity. But it did play
part, especially with Platonic thinkers of a metaphysica
mind. Two such thinkers were Peter Sterry and Jeremi
Although White, born in 1630, was seventeen years y
they were close friends. Both had been chaplains to Cr
of Cambridge colleges-Sterry of Emmanuel, where he w
as John Smith, Benjamin Whichcote and Ralph Cudw
Trinity. They believed both in pre-existence of the
salvation; but their views on these subjects were not pu
lifetime. White's The Restoration of All Things appeared p
Sterry's posthumously published Discourse of the Freed
comes near to asserting both doctrines; but it is only from
treatise, headed That the State of Wicked men after this life is
things, that we can fully learn his views on the afterlife.
Like most of the Cambridge P atonists, Sterry and W
up as Calvinist predestinationists. But, unlike the other
not abandon this doctrine in favour of Arminian free w
combine it with their liberal, love-centred, Neoplatonic
were able to do by the only possible means: the doctrine o
In their system the arbitrary, senseless fact of predestina
believer can look forward to the final, eternal consonan
that it blots out all the screeching discords that led up to
The rain will be over; the storm pass't away. The sw
Golden, the Glorious smiles of Love will return after
. . . Wrath is but for a moment; at longest the mome
Shadow, this short dream of Lifes. The Truth of Life
Life, Eternity is for Love.
This retention of predestination was not of course du
vatism. To a Christian mystic this doctrine offers grea
him from having to twist many texts of the New Testame
mean the opposite of what they appear to say, and it c
the psychological character of mystical experience, to it
quality. Moreover the non-successive eternity of God st
destination. If God knows and does everything at once
undoubtedly He saves the elect and damns the reproba
And for a mystic, non-successive eternity is not only a be
his experience. Sterry appeals to this experience of ete
in favour of pre-existence of the soul, on the grounds tha
of Christ's spiritual body and therefore coeternal with
I appeale now to the experience of all spirituall person
their Love-desyres, in the sweete heights, & extacys of their Love-fruitions

. . . whither at these times they do not finde, feele & see themselves in a
21 See Walker, Decline of Hell, Ch. vii. I I683, p. 385-
must apologize for having to repeat here some 23 Sterry, MSS. deposited at Emmanuel
passages from this book. College, Cambridge, by Professor V. De Sola
22 Sterry, The Rise, Race, and Royalty of thePinto, Vol. mI, pp. 151-53.
Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man, London,

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 248 D. P. WALKER

marvellous, & incomprehens

groanes, carried to the naked
Glorys ... the Bridegroome him
of Eternity . . . is now in their
earnest, the pledge of Eternity
enlightens them unto a glymp
whither they goe, & in which th
The metaphysical framework
bination of Neoplatonism and C
goes back to Ficino and Nicolas
manuscript treatise Sterry gives
in so far as it concerns the pre-
begins with a hierarchy of em
Divinity', which stretches from t
the Unities or Henads, to created
Christ is the supreme Unity, whi
is the uncreated mind within t
Ideas of all creatures :24

All the Creatures praeexisted in the mediatory state of Christ, where, by

the immediate union of the Godhead in Him, they were all spirituall &
Eternall, holy, blessed, Divine Eternall Spirits . . . the immediate emana-
tions of the exemplar Ideas in the Godhead . . . This was the Spirituall
and Heavenly body of Christ.
So far we are still within non-success've eternity. The visible, temporal world
is a shadow of this ideal world, and Christ incarnate is 'the shadowie Head
of this shadie Image', hidden in it like a seed which will finally spring forth
and restore the whole creation, which now 'groaneth and travaileth in pain
together',25 restore it to its original ideal state.
This amalgam of Pauline christology and Neoplatonic emanationism thus
leads to a restoration of all things (wToKCi-rac-rC T rav'rcov),26 which 'is con-
firmed to be most universall' and will include 'the falne Angells as well as
the elect Ones'.27
The doctrines of both universal salvation and of pre-existence are also
supported by arguments based on time and eternity. Sterry demonstrates at
length that the notion of an aeternitas a parte post is, from his Neoplatonic point
of view, absurd.28 From this it follows: first, that, if human souls are immortal,
they must have existed, at least as Ideas in the mind of God, ab aeterno;
secondly, that the sin and misery of this world and of hell, which began in
time and have no eternal roots in God, must end in time.

24 Ibid., p. 155- 27 Sterry, MS. cit., p. 162.

25 Romans viii, 22. 28Ibid., pp. 118-28.
2 Acts iii, 21.

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 ETERNITY AND THE AFTERLIFE 249

Here is a diagram of this system:

Successive Time "

This World

HI llO

Hal 4f/

Figure 3

We can again show the whole serpent of eternity, because in this scheme there
is no successive eternity, no infinite time. The finite successive time of this
world and hell can be enclosed within non-successive eternity, encapsuled like
a dark, shadowy bubble within the shining sphere of the immutable world
of Ideas-White calls it a 'parenthesis' in eternity, claiming that by his
doctrine":29
all the Scenes of Time, and all Things done therein, are with an unspeak-
able Pleasure discovered and seen to be inviron'd, incompassed, infolded
in the Arms and Embraces of Eternity, lying down and resting there, as
in the End to which they were Eternally ordained.
This is, I think, a tidier, more satisfactory scheme than the Thomist one.
And this is one reason why it has been so successful; the successive eternity of
29 White, The Restoration of All Things, London, 1712, p. 9, cf. pp. Io8, 157, I6o.
17

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250 D. P. WALKER

hell has by now been dropped b

scheme still retains a disadvanta
pared with the Neoplatonic one.
question of theodicy: why did
this question does not arise. Th
being without envy,30 pours its
emanations, and eventually into
will. The Christian created worl
other hand, have a beginning,
create them, a decision He was fr
In Sterry's and White's scheme e
bliss and beauty; but why all th
dark bubble there at all? Unive
responsibility; but it does not r
tions is for Sterry and White, as
O certe necessarium Adae
Quod Christi morte deletum
O felix culpa, quae talem a
Meruit habere Redemptore
The dark blot on eternity is the
may flash out of it.

30 Plato, Paradox
Timaeus, 29 D. of the Fortu
3x See A. O. Lovejoy, 'Milton
in the History of and
Ideast

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