The Hellhound of the Qur'an: A Dog at the Gate of the Underworld

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
George Archer
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Sleep State ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Soul Sleep

Q. 18:9–26 tells the story of the ‘Sleepers of Ephesus’/‘Companions of the Cave’. Unique to this version of the legend, the Qur'an mentions the presence of a dog alongside the Sleepers: this dog has long been understood as the Sleepers' pet, yet it can be read as much more than this. Many other sources of the Sleepers' legend equate the mysterious sleeping figures to the sleeping dead awaiting resurrection, and the Qur'an offers many clues that its account of the Sleepers' story serves as a warning against the worship of the dead, as this confuses God's signs with the divine reality that sends them. By positing the saintly dead in a sleep-state (e.g. the Syriac Christian doctrine of soul-sleep; the Islamic barzakh), their cults are rendered useless. In this light, the dog in the Qur'anic account can be read not as just a simple pet, but as a guardian over the dead in symbolic continuity with figures such as Anubis and Cerberus. Thus the Sleepers' dog can be read as simultaneously functioning as an underworld guardian that protects the departed, and a fearful creature that warns Muslims not to worship deceased human beings.

Kant, Marginal Cases, and Moral Standing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard
Keyword(s):  
Life Stage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Identity Problem ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Moral Difference

According to the marginal cases argument, there is no property that might justify making a moral difference between human beings and the other animals that is both uniquely and universally human. It is therefore “speciesist” to treat human beings differently just because we are human beings. While not challenging the conclusion, this chapter argues that the marginal cases argument is metaphysically misguided. It ignores the differences between a life stage and a kind, and between lacking a property and having it in a defective form. The chapter then argues for a view of moral standing that attributes it to the subject of a life conceived as an atemporal being, and shows how this view can resolve some familiar puzzles such as how death can be a loss to the person who has died, how we can wrong the dead, the “procreation asymmetry,” and the “non-identity problem.”

כסתות, מספחות and נפשות (Ezek 13:17–23)

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-305
Author(s):  
Daewook Kim
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conceptual Connection ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead

AbstractThe expression נפשות in Ezekiel 13 refers to two different meanings: (living) human beings and the spirits of the dead. The words כסתות and מספחות seem to refer to the paraphernalia involved in the women’s practice of necromancy and in the fall of the people, respectively. The expression נפשות is employed as antanaclasis to establish a conceptual connection between necromancy and ruin.

scholarly journals Emergent Individuals and the Resurrection

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy O'Connor ◽  
Jonathan D. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Number Of Authors

We present an original emergent individuals view of human persons, on which persons are substantial biological unities that exemplify metaphysically emergent mental states. We argue that this view allows for a coherent model of identity-preserving resurrection from the dead consistent with orthodox Christian doctrine, one that improves upon alternatives accounts recently proposed by a number of authors. Our model is a variant of the “falling elevator” model advanced by Dean Zimmerman that, unlike Zimmerman’s, does not require a closest continuer account of personal identity. We end by raising some remaining theological concerns. 

scholarly journals RUMAH ABU MUARA KARANG

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 2249
Author(s):  
Oscarius Lufti ◽  
Agustinus Sutanto
Keyword(s):  
Design Concept ◽  
Project Design ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Living World ◽  
Architectural Space ◽  
Utilization Of Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Physical Boundary

Starting from the issue where there is a physical boundary that separates the world of life and the world of death which gives a bad impression of death. Living humans can perform rituals to interact spiritually with the world of the dead. From this it can be said that there are still opportunities for interaction between the living world and the world of death. Utilization of technology is applied in the design of projects to create architecture that becomes a container where interactions occur between the living world and the world of death. The world of death will mingle with visitors and vice versa so that interaction occurs. Carrying the theme ‘Third Place” in the proposed project design concept, the design of the columbarium will not be closed. Columbarium can be used as an architectural space that can be enjoyed by the community without exception. Interaction not only occurs with fellow human beings who are still alive, but also can occur with those who have died with the help of existing technology. With this view of the closed columbarium  can be removed. Keywords:  Columbarium; Death; Interaction; Life Abstrak Berawal dari isu dimana terdapat sebuah batasan secara fisik yang memisahkan antara dunia kehidupan dan dunia kematian yang menimbulkan kesan yang tidak baik terhadap kematian. Manusia yang masih hidup dapat melakukan ritual untuk berinteraksi secara rohani dengan dunia kematian. Dari hal ini dapat dikatakan bahwa masih terdapat peluang untuk terjadinya interaksi antara dunia kehidupan dan dunia kematian. Pemanfaatan teknologi diterapkan dalam perancangan proyek untuk menciptakan arsitektur yang menjadi wadah dimana terjadi interaksi antara dunia kehidupan dan dunia kematian. Dunia kematian akan berbaur dengan pengunjung dan sebaliknya sehingga terjadi interaksi. Membawa tema “Third Place” dalam konsep perancangan proyek yang diusulkan, perancangan rumah abu tidak akan bersifat tertutup. Rumah abu dapat dijadikan sebagai ruang arsitektur yang dapat dinikmati oleh masyarakat tanpa terkecuali. Interaksi tidak hanya terjadi dengan sesama manusia yang masih hidup, tetapi juga dapat terjadi dengan mereka yang sudah meninggal dengan bantuan teknologi yang ada. Dengan ini pandangan terhadap rumah abu yang bersifat tertutup dapat dihilangkan.

Games of cricket and the General Resurrection

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD STURCH
Keyword(s):  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Resurrection Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead

AbstractIt is often objected to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead that if we reject dualism and disembodied existence there is no way even for God to bring it about that a resurrected person is identical with his or her supposed original, rather than just a duplicate. My response is that if God intended all along that people should have two periods of existence, the problem vanishes. In a Test Match, there are long periods when the ground and stands are empty and no play takes place, yet no-one says that the resumed game may only be a duplicate of that of the previous day. The same holds for a resurrection intended from the beginning.

Divine Love in Classical Judaism

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-144
Author(s):  
Jacob Neusner
Keyword(s):  
Character Traits ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
Measure For Measure ◽  
Resurrection Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Human Kind

Classical Judaism depicts God in human terms. The human emotion of love is therefore imputed to God. Classical Judaism sees God and man as consubstantial, sharing in particular the same emotional traits. God has three major character traits, power, love, and justice. Power pertains to God’s creation, control of history, and imposition of morality on human kind. Love invokes the imagery of family. Justice means God metes out measure for measure. What happens to human beings responds to the actions of the person who is subject to judgment, and fairness governs. All relationships come to their final resolution in the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of humanity for eternal life or eternal death.

Quodlibet VI

2019 ◽  
pp. 311-337
Author(s):  
Turner Nevitt ◽  
Brian Davies
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One

This chapter presents Thomas Aquinas’s Quodlibet VI, which dates from his second Parisian regency (the second time Aquinas functioned as a master in Paris). It contains Aquinas’s answers to questions about God, angels, human beings, and purely bodily creatures. Specifically, the questions deal with: God: Is the one divine essence counted in addition to each one of the divine persons?; angels: Do they do whatever they do by a command of their will? The second was about their location? Can they be on the top of the empyrean heaven (which was also asked about glorified bodies?; the sacrament of baptism; faith; relating to religion or worship: obedience; alms given by clerics; alms given on behalf of the dead; sins; bodily things; and purely bodily creatures.

Contradictions

2020 ◽  
pp. 154-163
Author(s):  
Michael Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Moral Ideals ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Radical Scepticism

The conflict between the greatness and the wretchedness of human nature is considered on a more philosophical level. The Stoics do justice to our moral ideals but the Pyrrhonists (whom Pascal sees as implicitly putting humankind on a level with non-human animals) seem better to describe human beings in the mass. The quest for an essence of human nature is compromised by an awareness of the power of custom to determine our beliefs and values. Even our belief in fundamental principles may be based on custom. Yet radical scepticism is in practice unacceptable. The clash between dogmatism (the belief that we have knowledge) and scepticism is irreconcilable. Only the Christian doctrine of the Fall can enable us to get out of this impasse.

scholarly journals Christian Platonism and the Debate about Afterlife

Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 242-260
Author(s):  
Dirk Krausmuller
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Christian Platonism ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

In the sixth and seventh centuries the belief in an active afterlife and its corollaries, the cult of the saints and the care of the dead, came under attack by a group of people who claimed that the souls could not function without their bodies. Some defenders of the traditional point of view sought to rebut this argument through recourse to the Platonic concept of the self-moved soul, which is not in need of the body. However, the fit between Platonism and traditional notions of the afterlife was not as complete as might first be thought. This article focuses on two Christian thinkers, John of Scythopolis and Maximus the Confessor, who were deeply influenced by Platonic ideas. In his Scholia on the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius John states clearly that after death the souls of ordinary human beings are inactive whereas the souls of the spiritual elite have entered the realm of eternal realities, which is entirely separate from this world. The case of Maximus is more complex. One of his letters is a spirited defence of the posthumous activity of the soul. However, in his spiritual writings he outlines a conceptual framework that shows a marked resemblance to the position of John of Scythopolis.


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