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Experts consider why Christians think so much about what comes next

While Americans are a practical, go-getter lot that tends to squirm at even the mention of individual mortality, especially compared to other cultures, it is definitely on our minds.

According to the Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, about 72 percent of Americans believe in heaven or a place “where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded.”

A belief in hell? Yes, and no. Overall, about 58 percent of U.S adults believe in hell “where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished,” according to the study. Among all Christians, however, the belief is at 70 percent.

We talked to two experts, John Cavadini, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Institute for Church Life; and Kevin Rafferty, chair of the Department of Human Behavior at the College of Southern Nevada, about the concept of an afterlife in American culture, particularly the widespread Christian view:

Need for an afterlife

Rafferty: We’re the only animal as far as we know that knows we’re gonna die, and for a lot of people, the majority, it’s hard for us to kind of imagine the world going on without us, this kind of unique combination of beliefs and talents and skills is somehow going to just disappear, and so I think that’s part of the reason that we (have a vision of the afterlife) …

No matter what religion you adhere to, I think it kind of follows logically that why would this god, this spiritual being, this creation only give us one crack at the merry-go-round, and I know that’s not exactly the most religious kind of expression to use, but it really is kind of one turner of the wheel of life, and why would this spirit, if it loves us, and wants us to be happy, only give us one shot? I think that’s also part of the psychology of the whole thing.

Cavadini: It touches the issue of the meaning of someone’s life … I guess you could say that’s especially true if you think there isn’t any spiritual dimension to the cosmos at all so that one’s own death then means that your life had absolutely no significance or no meaning.

Iconic visions of hell

Rafferty: For whatever reason, the ideas of hell are much, much more concrete in Western civilization, that it’s more physical, it’s more painful, and that’s been kind of a theme that’s been carried through … But heaven, a little fuzzier. So what we tend to do is kind of put our own personal spin on the concept of heaven as opposed to the concept of hell, because the ideas of hell are such cultural icons in Western civilization it’s hard to get away from them.

Cavadini: I think that a lot of times the popular imagery associated with heaven and hell, especially hell, are distortions, are caricatures of the actual teaching. In a sense they belittle it because it makes it look like God is somebody who zaps you, whose like looking to check boxes: Is this person Catholic?; or, Is this person Protestant?; or, Is this person Jewish? … And that if you don’t check a box, God zaps you. But that can’t be true, that’s just a caricature, that’s not really God.

Hell is a state of definitive self-exclusion from God, so it’s not so much a place, it’s a state. It’s not as though you could … cross a geographical line and you’d be in hell. Hell is the self-willed exclusion of yourself from communion with God and the saints, or you could say hell is the eternal refusal to love, that’s what it is.

Working your way to heaven

Rafferty: There are other things you should be thinking about more than just the rules (according to today’s teachings). How do you treat people? How do you deal with people? How do you make a mark on this world? That old sage, WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? Even though it’s a Protestant thing to start with, is really kind of what the Catholic church and most Christian religions want you to do. You know, what would Jesus have done? Not necessarily what are the rules but what was the spirit of it.

Cavadini: A religion without challenging you, that you can lead a meaningless life, you can create one and you can end up condemned to meaninglessness for eternity is something which I think is a weak form of religion. … Love is something which is so, I don’t know, so beautiful and so enhancing of life that to think of it as something you don’t really have to work at, it’s just going to be given to you, you don’t really have to challenge yourself to grow deeply in it despite all of the obstacles that come up, it seems like that’s an invitation to a one-dimensional life.

Heaven, hell begin here

Cavadini: Catherine of Siena had a very beautiful saying, I think, and Dorothy Day used to quote it: ‘All the way to heaven is heaven.’ In other words, to the extent that you are living a life which is a life of self-giving love, you’re already in heaven. Because you’re on the way to heaven, you’re already there. … And I think, on the other hand, all the way to hell is hell. If you’re living a life which is consistently resisting love, which is consistently closing you off from people, alienating you from people, cultivating hatreds etcetera, in a sense you’re already in hell. To the extent that you’re on the way there, in a sense you’re already there.

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