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Revision as of 21:02, 15 March 2004 by Hawstom (talk | contribs) (typo)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The heavens is sometimes in reference to the sky, celestial sphere, and/or outer space.
Heaven is a concept found in many world religions or spiritual philosophies that describes a place "not of this world". As such, all concepts about heaven are based on the following sources:
- Testimony of individuals who claim to have personally experienced/visited heaven
- by having died and then been sent back to this life
- during a period of unconsciousness
- by a revelatory vision from heaven
- by a unique personal gift of seeing the heavenly realm
- Testimony of individuals who are presumed to have special insights
- holy ones
- miracle workers
- spectacular converts
- Claimed testimony of heavenly visitors
- God
- Angels
- Spirits
- Human intuitions of goodness
- Speculation and extrapolation
Those who believe in heaven hold that it (or hell) is generally the afterlife destination of all humans. In unusual instances humans have had, according to the claims of innumerable testimonies and traditions, personal knowledge of heaven, presumably for the purpose of teaching the rest of humanity of life, heaven, and God.
While there are abundant and varied sources, of varying degrees of reliability, for concepts of heaven, the typical believer's view appears to depend largely on his particular religious tradition. Various religions have described heaven as being populated by angels, demons, gods and goddesses, and/or heroes. Heaven is generally construed as a place of eternal happiness. The relationship between this concept and the celestial sphere is generally believed to have been first proposed by the ancient astronomer-priests (see also: astrologer).
In Eastern religions (and some Western traditions), with their emphasis on reincarnation, the concept of heaven is not as prominent. But it still is present: for example, in Buddhism there are several heavens, and those who accumulate good karma will be reborn in a heaven; however their stay in the heaven is not eternal -- eventually they will use up all their good karma and be reincarnated as a human.
Religions which have a heaven differ on how one gets into it. Some (followers of universalism) provide that everyone will go to heaven, no matter what they have done on earth. Others make entrance to heaven conditional on having lived a "good life" (within the terms of the spiritual system); those who do not meet the criteria go to a place of punishment, hell. Other religions (many varieties of Christianity) make entrance to heaven conditional not on good works, but on having believed and trusted in the deity, and accepting the deity's offer of salvation. In yet other religions (Calvinism, a Protestant form of Christianity), those who go to heaven go, not because of anything they have done or independently chosen, but because God has chosen to favour them by predestining them to go there. Recent testimonies (over the past 50 years) indicate that one's capacity and enjoyment in heaven are an extension of self-forsaking and love practiced on earth. They also indicate that while enjoyment and fulfillment in heaven are unexpectedly grand, so is anguish and suffering for misspent life moments.
Heaven is an especially interesting doctrine in Christian thought, which has the resurrection of the body dominating the concept of afterlife. While the intermediate state (between death and the resurrection) is unclear, the final state of believers is in an incorruptible, resurrected body, living in the "New Jerusalem" in the "New Earth." The person was never meant to be disembodied. Death is an enemy, not a friend who frees the soul.
The present Roman Catholic teaching regarding Heaven is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever... This perfect life with ....is called heaven. is the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." Pope John Paul II has said (see link below), " is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with ."
The concept of heaven is well-defined within the Christian and Islamic religions. The Jewish concept of the afterlife is sometimes known as "olam haba", the world to come, but Judaism's afterlife beliefs were never set forth in a systematic or official fashion as was done in Christianity and Islam.
See also:
External links
- July 21, 1999 statement of Pope John Paul II concerning the topic of Heaven.
- The Near-Death Experience and Heaven
Heaven is also 2002 motion picture.