The End of Life: A Perspective from Biblical Theology

In Western societies we are aware of points of disruption: disruption in the feeling of failing strength in old age, illness, weakness, infirmity and death. Passive surrender to God - as creator and giver of life in all its earthly states - is replaced by an autonomous judgment of what makes life po...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mieth, Dietmar 1940- (Author)
Format: Print Article
Language:English
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Published: SCM Press 2021
In: Concilium
Year: 2021, Issue: 5, Pages: 25-34
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Death / Protest / Community / Old person (60-90 years)
IxTheo Classification:HA Bible
NBE Anthropology
Further subjects:B Life
B Biblical Theology
Description
Summary:In Western societies we are aware of points of disruption: disruption in the feeling of failing strength in old age, illness, weakness, infirmity and death. Passive surrender to God - as creator and giver of life in all its earthly states - is replaced by an autonomous judgment of what makes life possible and worth living, and an autonomous decision about death. Christianity, together with the other Abrahamic religions, takes more into account, a transformation of death into life. This transformation of death has a retroactive effect on our view of earthly life and death. The transformation in advance of earthly life into dying back and isolation places earthly life under the spell of heavenly expectation. Suffering brings us to God. This article both presents this tradition of the mors mystica and criticises its individual interpretation and its passivity.
ISSN:0010-5236
Contains:Enthalten in: Concilium