Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:42:50.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why heaven doesn't make earth absolutely meaningless, just relatively

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2020

T. J. MAWSON Open the ORCID record for T. J. MAWSON [Opens in a new window]
T. J. MAWSON*
Affiliation:
St Peter's College, Oxford, OX1 2DL, UK
*
e-mail: tim.mawson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, I seek charitably to develop an argument suggested by Thaddeus Metz. This is an argument against the view that it is consistent to hold that, while our lives may have some meaningfulness even if there is no heavenly afterlife awaiting us, if there is such an afterlife, they are even more meaningful, because heaven adds a potential infinity of meaningfulness. Having developed this argument on Metz's behalf, I criticize it. I conclude that – while throwing out a number of interesting ideas and possibilities along the way – no argument along Metz's lines can finally reach the conclusion aimed for.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 732 - 751
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Mawson, T. J. (2010) ‘Sources of dissatisfaction with answers to the question of the meaning of life’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2, 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2016a) God and the Meanings of Life (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2016b) ‘What God could (and couldn't) do to make life meaningful’, in Seachris, J. & Goetz, S. (eds) Theism and the Meaning of Life: New Essays (London: Bloomsbury), 37–58.Google Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2017) ‘An agreeable answer to a pro-theism/anti-theism question’, in Kraay, Klaas J. (ed.) Does God Matter? (New York: Routledge), 70–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2018) ‘God's possible roles in the meaning of life: reply to Metz’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 10, 193–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2019) Monotheism and the Meaning of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (forthcoming) ‘Does anything we do matter forever?’, Religious Studies.Google Scholar
Metz, T. (2009) ‘Imperfection as sufficient for a meaningful life: how much is enough?’, in Nagasawa, Y. & Wielenberg, E. (eds) New Waves in Philosophy of Religion (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 192–214.Google Scholar
Metz, T. (2017) ‘Meaning in life’, in Nagasawa, Y. & Matheson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 353–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metz, T. (2018) ‘God's Role in a meaningful life. new reflections from Tim Mawson’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 10, 171–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metz, T. (2019) God, Soul and the Meaning of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinburne, R. (2016) ‘How God makes life a lot more meaningful’, in Seachris, J. & Goetz, S. (eds) God and Meaning: New Essays (London: Bloomsbury), 149–64.Google Scholar