Calvin Prof's Book Examines What Happens After Death?

June 16, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

A new book from a Calvin College philosophy professor looks at a central
Christian concept: what happens to humans after death.

Kevin Corcoran's "Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative
to the Soul" argues that humans are constituted by their bodies without being
identical to the bodies that constitute them.

Corcoran says much of mainstream Christianity however believes that humans are
immaterial souls.

"What we believe about ourselves matters," says Corcoran. "In a recent survey
an astoundingly large number of evangelicals reported not believing in a
literal, future resurrection of the body for human beings. That shows the
extent to which Christians fail to take seriously our created nature as
embodied, physical beings."

The issues discussed in the book have a personal, real-life relevance Corcoran
says.

"In 1968 I lost my father to cancer," he recalls. "I was four years old. I can
still remember the funeral home. And I can remember that as I looked into the
casket, my mother told me that my father was now with God in heaven. I remember
feeling perplexed. And why not? My father was lying lifeless before me. How
could he be with God in heaven? I came to understand that my mother believes
what most Christians have believed down through the centuries: humans are
immaterial souls capable of disembodied existence."

Corcoran no longer agrees with his mother's point of view.

"It's not that I don't understand the view," he says. "I do. What I deny is
that human persons like you and me are immaterial."

For Christians, Corcoran says, it is important to recognize that the relevant
catholic and Christian doctrine with respect to an afterlife is that of
resurrection of the body.

"None of the Ecumenical creeds of the Church confesses belief in a doctrine of
soul survival," he says. "No, the Christian doctrine regarding the afterlife is
a doctrine of resurrection."

Corcoran says his view of human nature has implications for both life in
heaven and in the here and now.

"A materialist view of human nature," he says, "makes good sense of the
urgency and importance of our call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and
pursue justice. Why? Because we are material beings; starvation, want and
physical impoverishment are kingdom concerns. Contrary to the sacred hymn, this
world is our home. It is broken, disfigured and diseased to be sure, but it
matters to us. It matters to us because we are created for this world in all of
its physicality."

Contact Corcoran at 616-526-6636 or kcorcora@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/corcoran_book.htm

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Received on Fri Jun 16 11:50:23 2006