Scot McKnight presents on his blog a post on eschatology in general and afterlife in particular, by D. C. Cramer, who is a PhD student in religion with an emphasis in theological ethics at Baylor University. Here is the summary of Cramer’s ‘ten theses’:
(1) Every view of the afterlife involves some amount of speculation.
(2) Theological positions cannot be reduced strictly to biblical exegesis.
(3) Christian philosophers should be given the benefit of the doubt when reasoning about the meaning of important concepts (love, justice, etc.).
(4) Minority readings of Scripture should be given special attention.
(5) The position one actually holds must be distinguished from what we believe to be the “good and necessary consequences” of that position.
(6) The practical differences between these views shouldn’t be overestimated.
(7) The theological differences between these views shouldn’t be underestimated.
(8) Each of these positions has both subtle, scholarly articulations and shallow, popular descriptions; care should be taken to distinguish the two
(9) We all have motivations for holding the views we hold, but unless someone explicitly states his or her motivation for holding a view, it is best to leave discussion of motivations out of it.
(10) None of these positions are clearly unorthodox or unevangelical.
You may not agree with all of these, but they are worth pondering.
Find the original posts HERE and HERE.
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