In the simplest of terms, there are basically two schools of thought involving resurrection among contemporary philosophers of religion. Each of these schools seek to explain how bodily resurrection might be possible, and the proposals that each school presents come with numerous logical problems that are difficult to resolve. The school closest to what most Christians have believed over the centuries affirms what is called substance dualism, the belief that there are two basic substances in the universe, physical substances... Read more

What actually is the afterlife?  In Adolf von Harnack’s magisterial summary of early Christianity, translated into English as What is Christianity, he claims that the distinctive teaching that sets Christianity apart from all other world religions is its strange belief in physical life after death.  From the earliest records we have of the Jesus movement, what struck ancient people the most about the followers of the executed Jewish messiah was their fearlessness in the face of death. Roman writers noted that... Read more