Abstract
Life after death is an integral part of the traditional framework of Christian doctrine. It is not at all surprising therefore that it should suffer with other doctrines from the gradual erosion of belief in traditional Christianity which has taken place in recent centuries. Nicholas Lash pictures the contemporary theologian ‘doing theology on Dover beach’, and listening to the ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ of the ‘Sea of Faith’. Consequently for Lash the future hope is a mythological fantasy, and belief in paradise equivalent to belief in fairyland.1
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Notes and References
N. Lash, Theology on Dover Beach (DLT, 1979) pp. vi, and 181–2.
E. L. Mascall, The Importance of Being Human (OUP, 1959 ) p. 22.
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J. A. Motyer, After Death (Hodder, 1965 ) p. 27.
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M. Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life (1912; Fontana, 1967 ).
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© 1982 Paul and Linda Badham
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Badham, P., Badham, L. (1982). The Attenuation of Doctrinal Support for Belief in a Future Life. In: Immortality or Extinction?. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04439-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04439-9_4
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