Ancient afterlife beliefs

  A Buddhist version of the 'Pascal's Wager' Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), among other things, is famous for his argument that, based on the beliefs of post-mortem fate, is more rational to believe in Christianity. Indeed, Pascal argued that even if Christianity was wrong, the deprivation of a transient life of worldy pleasures is not a significant loss, whereas the possible loss if Christianity is true is much higher if one lives a life a wordly pleasures and ignore the Christian life (and, indeed, Pascal believed in literally endless torments for unbelievers). It should be noted that there is more nuance in Pascal's argument that it is often given credit, as this discussion between Alex O' Connor and Graham Tomlin :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqxA1SHrJgA    Curiously enough, there is a sutta, a Buddhist discourse preserved in the Pali Canon, that makes a similar point. Indeed, if there will be an afterlife, ignoring the possibility of post-mortem retribution of...

  Hilary of Poitiers, Jerome of Stridon and Ambrose of Milan on subjection to Christ In what follows, I’ll quote the views of St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 367), St Jerome of Stridon (d. 420) and St. Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) on the topic of ‘subjection’. This topic is quite relevant also for the present eschatological debates among Christians and it is about how to interpret passages like 1 Corinthians 15:21-28 and 2 Philippians 2:9-11. For a more complete discussion about the eschatological beliefs of these authors, see: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/05/possible-traces-of-universalism-in.html Hilary of Poitiers In his work ‘On the Trinity’, Hilary of Poitiers distinguishes between the ‘subjection’ and the ‘abolition’ of enemies and evil powers: “32. The meaning of the abolishing of every power which is against Him is not obscure The prince of the air, the power of spiritual wickedness, shall be delivered to eternal destruction, as Christ says,  Dep...

  The Epicureans of India: the Charvaka (or Lokayata) Various centuries before the Common Era, an Indian school of thought, the Charvaka (or Lokayata ) held that there was no afterlife and no post-mortem retribution for good and bad actions in this life. By their Hindu, Jain and Buddhist opponents (who all accepted the doctrines of karma and rebirth, even if they did disagree on the specifics) they were often perceived as 'worldy' and hedonist. A very early description of their views found in the Buddhist text reads as follows: " There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed; no fruit or result of good and bad actions; no this world, no other world; no mother, no father; noAnyway,  beings who are reborn spontaneously; no good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have themselves realised by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world. " (MN 60, translation by bhikkhu Bodhi; source: https://suttacentral.net/mn60/en/bodhi?lang...

  Ilaria Ramelli on Hilary of Poitiers: a critical assessment In her book ‘A Larger Hope? Vol. 1’, Ilaria Ramelli has a brief section about Hilary of Poitiers: “Hilary of Poitiers and His Corporate Soteriology Hilary († 367ca), bishop of Poitiers in Gaul, a devoted anti-Arian, knew and admired Origen, and even translated nearly 40,000 lines from his Greek works into Latin, if we credit Jerome (Apology against Rufinus 1). It is therefore not surprising to find that he took over Origen’s interpretation of God’s actions of destruction as remedial. Commenting on Psalm 2:8–9, he observes that God will bruise and break the nations “in order to reform them.” Sinners are slain by God when they die to vices and sins, and are redeemed (Treatises on Psalms 139.19). This is typically Origenian exegesis. Moreover, for Hilary, Christ’s incarnation is salvific for all humanity, because Christ’s body—which is also the church—contains every human individual (“corporate soteriology” or “p...

Adi Shankara on Karma and Ishvara "38. From Him (the Lord) are the fruits of actions ; for that is reasonable. Having described the nature of Brahman, the author proceeds now to discuss the view of the Mimamsakas, who say that Karma (work) and not Īswara gives the fruits of one’s actions. According to them(?) it is useless to set up an Iswara for this purpose, since Karma itself can give that result at a future time. This Sutra refutes it and says that from Iswara alone come the fruits cf one’s work. Karma is insentient and short-lived, and cannot therefore be expected to bestow the fruits of actions at a future time according to one’s deserts. We do not see any insentient thing bestow fruits on those who worship it. Therefore it is only from the Lord, who is worshipped through actions, that their results proceed. 39. And because the scripture so teaches. The scripture declares that the fruits of actions come from the Lord. “That great, birthless Self is the eater of food and the ...

  Was St. Ambrose of Milan an Universalist? A case study While studying the eschatological views of the Church Fathers, one of the most frustrating finding was to find out how ambiguous was the textual evidence. As an example, I’ll treat St. Ambrose of Milan (fl. 4 th century). As far as I know, unlike, say, his contemporaries or near contemporaries St. Gregory of Nyssa [1] , Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia [2] , or even Jerome of Stridon [3] (before his explicit repudiation of Origen of Alexandria and his followers) his writings never created controversy in the matter of eschatology. As far as I know, no one in Antiquity ever quoted (approvingly or disapprovingly) as an universalist. In one passage of his Commentary on Psalms he seems quite clear that some will not be punished with a corrective aim:   “ There is also hope in the mercy of the judge. The prison bars are harder than exile itself, and no return is forever barred to all who are banished. If thi...

  Ancient debate on the afterlife in Buddhist texts In what follows, I report the comment that Bhikkhu Analayo makes on the Payasi-sutta (DN 23; here an English translation: https://suttacentral.net/dn23/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin ) and its parallels in his book ' Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research '. This shows clearly that the existence of an 'afterlife' wasn't universally accepted even in ancient India. "As briefly mentioned in the first chapter of my study, the early discourses give the impression of having come into being in a setting where the idea of rebirth was far from universally accepted. Hence it comes as no surprise that at times the early Buddhists had to defend this doctrine when facing those who rejected the idea of any form of survival after death. The Pāyāsi-sutta and its parallels record a prolonged debate between the materialist Pāyāsi and the Budd...

  Brief outline of afterlife beliefs of Jainism Jainism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism ) is one of the oldest religions in the world, at least as one that survives today as a living tradition (according to modern scholars the earliest historical figure of this religion dates back to the 7th or 8th century BC!). And, I would say that it is one of the most peculiar religions. Like most other Indian traditions, it accepts the belief in samsara , the cycle of deaths and rebirths in which most sentient beings are 'trapped' due to ignorance. It should be noted that Jainism is divided in two main sects but in what follows, this distinction isn't important. Like Buddhism, Jainism doesn't accept the belief in a creator Deity.  The ordinary condition of most sentient beings is one of being trapped in a cycle of deaths and rebirths that has no beginning and potentially has no end.  The division between the realms of beings is vertical: at the bottom, under the earth, there...

  Ilaria Ramelli on Barsanuphius of Gaza and Philoxenus of Mabbug: some comments In her book ' A Larger Hope, vol. 1 ', Ilaria Ramelli has the following things to say about Barsanuphius of Gaza (fl. 6th cenury): "But it is especially meaningful that even Barsanuphius of Gaza, who is regarded as an anti-Origenist, in his Letter 569 recommended that Christians should pray for the salvation of the whole world, including “heretics” and “pagans.” He declared that three saints pray for this—one of these being himself—and “they will indeed achieve God’s great mercy.” Therefore, he seems to have embraced universal salvation, although in a somewhat cautious and indirect way." (Ilaria Ramelli, a Larger Hope, vol.1, p. 162) "However, we have an important confirmation from the time of Justinian of the presence of this doctrine of apokatastasis in Gregory’s and the other Cappadocians’ writings. It is offered by an ascetic from the desert of Gaza, Barsanuphius’ Letter 604. A m...

The problem with 'proof-texts'  in the Christian Bible   to argue for an eschatological position  Many Christians use an argument from 'parallelism' to argue that their escathological view is the correct one. In my opinion, though, this argument is problematic for the simple reason that by itself leads to an opposite conclusion depending on the text it is applied to. Consider these two following passages from the New Testament: "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:46) "Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.  For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:18-19) So, the supporters of the 'traditional' view of unending torments (and also, in their way thos...

Ilaria Ramelli on Macarius of Magnesia "Another supporter of apokatastasis along Origen’s lines seems to have been Macarius of Magnesia, the author of the Apocriticus or Monogenes, very probably stemming from the fourth century. He seems to have been a semi-contemporary of Didymus and Gregory Nyssen (on whom see below) and to have followed Origen in his doctrine of rational creatures, originally homogeneous, but then divided into angels, humans, and demons, according to the gravity of their sins and degrees of elongation from God. His very refutation of a Porphyrian polemicist seems to be inspired by Origen’s refutation of Celsus. Hints of the apokatastasis theory are to be found in the sections of his Apocriticus or Monogenes that are preserved, such as 3.43.2: when Paul says that “God grants mercy to whom he will and hardens the heart of whom he wills” (Rom 9:18), he does not mean “that some are granted mercy by God while others are not granted mercy, but have their hearts harde...