In the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog some notable writers and thinkers answer the question, “What (or where, or why) is heaven?” What’s your answer?
What (or where, or why) is heaven?
In the Washington Post’s “On Faith”
What is your vision of heaven? What images – from Scripture, tradition, culture or your personal experience – best describe heaven for you?
Martin Marty wrote:
It did not take a Karl Marx to see that dreams of the afterlife could be an “opiate of the people,” an enslaver instead of an inspirer of work and, if need be, of revolution. Just as often hope of heaven, however, has challenged people to endure prisons and death camps or take risks which benefited others.
Karen Armstrong wrote:
I personally think it best not to try to imagine what we call ‘heaven’, because it can only be some kind of projection or wish-fulfillment. We can become so fixated on ‘getting into heaven’ that all our good deeds become purely selfish – as irreligious as paying into a retirement annuity for a comfortable life in the hereafter. Religion is supposed to be about the loss of ego – not fantasies about its eternal survival in optimum conditions.
Jack Moline wrote:
What we really mean when we ask if there is life after death is this: is there personal consciousness after death. Will I know that I am me, and will others be able to distinguish me when my mortal journey has ended? With confidence and relief, I acknowledge that I don’t know and that it does not concern me.
Read the rest at “On Faith”
What about you?