Author ORCID Identifier
Carol Zaleski: 0000-0001-7374-5888
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Publication Title
Religious Studies
Abstract
All the cards seem to be stacked against belief in immortality. Nonetheless, the resources of particular religious traditions may avail where generic philosophical solutions fall short. With attention to the boredom and narcissism critiques, intimations of deathlessness in Śāntideva’s radical altruism, and recent Christian debates on the soul and the intermediate state, I propose two criteria for a coherent religion-specific belief in immortality: (1) the belief is supported by a fully realized religious tradition, (2) the belief satisfies the demand for self-transcendence as well as for self-preservation. Where self-transcendence and self-preservation are kept in balance, and where the whole idea rests upon the lattice-work of a fully realized religious tradition, immortality is a fitting object of belief. Moreover, such belief is compatible with considerable speculative freedom concerning matter and spirit, body and soul, and personal identity over time.
Keywords
Immortality, soul, intermediate state, Śāntideva
Volume
60
First Page
S117
Last Page
S130
DOI
10.1017/S0034412523000124
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Recommended Citation
Zaleski, Carol, "How to Believe in Immortality" (2024). Religion: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/rel_facpubs/44
Comments
Archived as published.