The Revision Theory of Resurrection

Religious Studies 44 (1):63-81 (2008)
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Abstract

A powerful argument against the resurrection of the body is based on the premise that all resurrection theories violate natural laws. We counter this argument by developing a fully naturalistic resurrection theory. We refer to it as the revision theory of resurrection (the RTR). Since Hick’s replica theory is already highly naturalistic, we use Hick’s theory as the basis for the RTR. According to Hick, resurrection is the recreation of an earthly body in another universe. The recreation is a resurrection counterpart. We show that the New Testament supports the idea of resurrection counterparts. The RTR asserts that you are a node in a branching tree of increasingly perfect resurrection counterparts. These ever better counterparts live in increasingly perfect resurrection universes. We give both theological arguments and an empirical argument for the RTR.

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Eric Steinhart
William Paterson University of New Jersey

Citations of this work

Four-Dimensionalism, Evil, and Christian Belief.Ryan Mullins - 2014 - Philosophia Christi 16 (1):117-137.
Naturalistic Theories of Life after Death.Eric Steinhart - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (2):145-158.
On the plurality of gods.Eric Steinhart - 2013 - Religious Studies 49 (3):289-312.

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References found in this work

Counterpart theory and quantified modal logic.David Lewis - 1968 - Journal of Philosophy 65 (5):113-126.
All the World’s a Stage.Theodore Sider - 1996 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (3):433 – 453.
The Compatibility of Materialism and Survival.Dean W. Zimmerman - 1999 - Faith and Philosophy 16 (2):194-212.
On the importance of self-identity.Derek Parfit - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (October):683-90.

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