THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Most of the early Christians held to a resurrection of the same bodies that died — " the flesh," " this flesh " — in every respect iden- 6. The Res- tical with the earthly body. Origen
urrection. sought to give the doctrine an idealistic interpretation; others would relieve it of its grosser features; while the Gnostics, following the Greek conception of matter in relation to spirit, denied the physical resurrection. The early Protestant view was that the same body laid down at death shall be raised, with the same form as the earthly body and reunited to the soul, so as to be glorious, powerful, spiritual, celestial — the same body but of different quality. Two other conceptions of the resurrection have been suggested. One, that this occurs for each one at death when he enters at once into another sphere of life; the other, that it is a resurrection from the dead, that it therefore stands for the ethical completion of life in union with Christ, uninterrupted by death, and after death carried to perfection. (See Heaven.)
In the early Church judgment was presented in many forms. The Son or the Father was the judge. Some souls — those, e.g., of martyrs — 7. The went at once to the felicity of heaven Judgment. (Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen); the Gnostics affirmed this only of the most spiritual persons. The judgment was to be accompanied by alarming physical signs together with a conflagration, in which the world shall be destroyed. The punishment of hell was depicted in bold and sensuous imagery — some regarding the fire as material (Lactantius, De Spectaculis) . Others conceived of punishment as a sense of separation from God. Restorationism was advocated by Origen, but was overcome until long afterward, the opposite view being general — the eternal duration of punishment. By the scholastics heaven was divided into the firmament of the visible heaven, the spiritual heaven as the abode of saints and angels, and the intellectual heaven as the sphere of the beatific vision. Hell was also partitioned' off: the place of devils and the damned; and the various subterranean regions, as Purgatory, Limbus Infantum, and Limbus Patrum. Here and there a voice was heard in favor of Origen 's view, but the prevailing doctrine was that of unrelieved eternity of penalty for. those dying in mortal sin (cf. Dante's inscription over the gate of hell, " Leave all hope, all who enter," Inferno, canto iii., v. 9). Origen 's conception woke to life again in John Scotus Erigena. In the sixteenth century the question suggested by some of the Fathers (Justin, Tatian), whether the soul was naturally mortal or immortal, was once more raised in connection with the doctrine of punishment. Protestant writers, especially those of mystical temperament, pictured the joys of heaven and the pains of the lost with elaborate and either glowing or harrowing particulars of time and place and inner experience, addressed to the feverish imagination and appealing to hope or fear. In more recent times the entire question of eschatology has entered upon a further development. In addition to the doctrine of the endless punishment of those who die impenitent, there are offered two other solutions of this prob-
lem which take their rise in the Scriptures, having already appeared in both ancient and modern thought — universal restoration (see Universalists) and conditional immortality (see Annihilationism). The theory of evolution has set all former questions in a new light and demanded a reconsideration of them in the light of its principle. In addition to this, the doctrine of universal restoration grounds its hope on the absoluteness of God, the indefeasible continuity of grace, and the indestructible confidence that finally the better self in every man will yield to the divine persuasion and God will succeed in his eternal purpose of redemption. Conditional immortality argues either from an annihilating fiat of God at the judgment or from the well-known biological law that function determines organism. Since already many living forms which once flourished on the earth, having gradually ceased to adapt themselves to their environment, have perished, the same fate will overtake all souls who refuse response to the ethical and spiritual environment of life. Thus man is " immortable " (S. D. McConnell, Evolution of Immortality, New York, 1901). C. A. Beck with.
Bibliography: The titles of the older literature, covering the non-Christian religions, are collected in E. Abbot's Literature of the Doctrine of a Future Life (appended to W. R. Alger, Destiny of the Soul; Critical Hist, of the Doctrine of a Future Life, Boston, many editions, e.g., 1880, reprinted separately). New York, 1871. The reader should consult the literature under the articles mentioned in the text — e.g., Annihilationism; Future Punishment; Hades; Immortality; Judgment; Millennium, Millenarianism; Probation, Future. The literature on the eschatology of non-Christian religions should be sought under the articles on those faiths and under Comparative Religion. The most important literature on the Christian doctrine is mentioned in the text. Consult further: F. Richter, Die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, 2 vols., Breslau, 1843-44; S. Lee, Eschatology, Boston, 1858; W Florke, Die letzten Dinge, Rostock, 1866; S. Davidson, Doctrine of Last Things Contained in the N. T., London, 1882 (affirms that no consistent doctrine is taught in the N. T.); sections 151-154 of Dorner's " System of Christian Doctrine " is translated by N. Smyth in Dorner on the Future State, New York, 1883; H. Karsten, Die Letzten Dinge, Hamburg, 1885; C. E. Luthardt, Die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, Leipsic, 1885; F. Kliefoth, Christliche Eschatologie, 1887; J. A. Spencer, Five Last Things, New York, 1887; J. M. Greene, The Blessed Dead, Boston, 1888; J. Fyfe, The Hereafter, Edinburgh, 1890; F. G. Hibbard, Eschatology, New York, 1890 (deals with the doctrine as set forth in the Book of Revelation); H. M. Luckock, After Death, London, 1890; J. Strong, The Doctrine of a Future Life, New York, 1891; J. Cross, Coming Eschatological Events as Revealed in Holy Writ, London, 1893; K. Rohr, Die letzten Dinge, Basel, 1895; G. S. Barrett, The Intermediate State and the Last Things, London, 1896; S. D. F. Salmond, Christian Doctrine of Immortality, Edinburgh, 1896; J. T. Beck, Die Vollendung des Reiches Gottes, Gutersloh, 1897; R. H. Charles, Critical Hist, of the Doctrine of a Future Life, London, 1899 (for Jewish and early Christian eschatology); W. B. Brown, Problem of Final Destiny, New York, 1900; M. v. Cochem, The Four Last Things, ib. 1900; J. Fiske, Life Everlasting, Boston, 1901; G. Delanne, Evidences for a Future Life, New York, 1904; H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul's Conceptions of the Last Things, ib. 1904; C. A. Beckwith, Realities of Christian Theology, Boston, 1906; L. Elbe, Future Life in the Light of Ancient and Modern Science, Chicago, 1906; G. T. Fechner, On Life after Death, ib. 1906; L. A. Muirhead, The Eschatology of Jesus, London, 1906; S. Baring- Gould, The Restitution of All Things, New York, 1907. Besides these works, the reader may consult also the various treatises on systematic theology, more or less space being always devoted to the subject; the works on the history of doctrine will guide to the historical study of the topic.