Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Christe, Wilhelm

Titel

Unsterblichkeit der Seele«: Versuch einer evangelisch-theologischen Rehabilitierung1

Ist Teil von

• Neue Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 2012-07, Vol.54 (3), p.262

Ort / Verlag

Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Since the 1920's, the idea of an immortal soul has been nearly unanimously rejected in German Protestant theology. Through the notion of an immortal "substantial" soul, so the suspicion goes, one would ascribe salvation and eternal life to one's self and therefore no longer be dependent upon the God who justifies. Moreover, death becomes treated all-too-lightly and the idea of judgment does not receive serious attention. This essay endeavours to show that these objections do not completely comprehend the philosophical-theological concept of the immortal soul. For there is also a relational and theonomic foundation underlying this idea with reference to truth, the good and God. In Christianity, this understanding has been deepened by the concept of creation. Starting here, this essay attempts to rehabilitate the idea of an immortal soul, which may be better understood as an expression of God's irrevocable act of setting human beings before him and desiring to speaking with them eternally, which is imprinted upon the very nature of their being. Such an understanding of the immortality of the soul does not present an alternative or a competing view to the concept of resurrection and eternal life, but rather depicts their ontological presupposition. Finally, it will be shown that such an approach is indeed compatible with the Bible. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]