In this paper I argue from a number of positions that are, while not uncontested, at least common among analytic philosophers of religion for the possibility, and indeed the plausibility, of a doctrine of limbo. The account of limbo that I advocate is substantially different than the element of Catholic speculative theology that goes by the same name. According to that doctrine, the limbus infantium is a place or state of perfect natural happiness for those who, prior to the age (...) of reason, die without baptism. Given the possibility of ‘baptism by desire’, the need for limbo, as I shall develop it, is not based on whether or not an agent has received the sacrament of baptism. Instead limbo is, I argue, a place where individuals who have not had sufficient opportunity to be reconciled to God in the present life will be given the opportunity to do so in the next life. Limbo, so understood, is a place which allows for the post-mortem healing and growth of individuals so that they are able to choose either for or against God in the way required for redemption in this life. On this view, limbo is not a place of ‘second-chances’, but rather a place of first-chances for those who were denied them in their terrestrial life. (shrink)

In this paper I suggest that near-death experiences (NDEs) provide a rational basis for belief in life after death. My argument is a simple one and is modeled on the argument from religious experience for the existence of God. But unlike the proponents of the argument from religious experience, I stop short of claiming that NDEs prove the existence of life after death. Like the argument from religious experience, however, my argument turns on whether or not there is good reason (...) to believe that NDEs are authentic or veridical. I argue that there is good reason to believe that NDEs are veridical and that therefore it is reasonable to believe in the existence of what they seem to be experiences of, namely, a continued state of consciousness after the death of the body. I will then offer some comments on the philosophical import of NDEs, as well as reflections on the current state of contemporary philosophy in light of the neglect of this phenomenon. (shrink)

Does it make sense to think of eternal life not as an unending continuation of life subsequent to death but as fully actualized in one’s present mortal and finite life? After outlining conceptual and moral reasons for being troubled by the notion of an endless life, this article draws upon the thought of major Christian theologians and philosophers of religion to expound the idea of eternal life as a possession exclusively of the life one is presently living. Supplementing the claims (...) of religious thinkers with notions of four-dimensionalism and eternalism from theoretical physics and the philosophy of time, and considering important objections to the conception of eternal life in question, I argue for both the conception’s intelligibility and its ethical and spiritual profundity. (shrink)

W artykulejego autor stara się wykazać, żejeśli istnieje wolna wola, której efektami są dobro lub zło, to musi istnieć również i Sąd Ostateczny, gdyż musi istnieć odpowiednie rozliczenie uczynionego dobra lub zła. Istnienie wolnej woli, mogącej wytwarzać dobro i zło, byłoby czymś całkowicie anomalnym i bezcelowym, gdyby nie istniał Sąd Ostateczny, a w świecie, jak widzimy, nie ma rzeczy bezcelowych. Uzasadniana jest także zależność odwrotna: jeśli w dziejach kultur ludzkich, w dziejach systemów religijnych, od bardzo dawnych czasów, przynajmniej od starożytnego (...) Egiptu, funkcjonuje przekonanie o sądzie, któremu podlegają osoby umierające, to taki sąd ma sens tylko wtedy, gdy osoby te posiadały wolną wolę w czynieniu dobra lub zła. W ten sposób idea Sądu Ostatecznego wspiera przekonanie, że istnieje wolna wola. (shrink)