Immortality and the Afterlife

Abstract

Abstract Medieval scholastic and contemplative philosophy shares a common focus on our final or ultimate end. While scholastic texts tend to focus on metaphysical and mechanical issues (such as whether the soul can survive the death of the body or how the numerically same body can be resurrected), though, contemplative texts focus more on our experience of immortality. This chapter addresses contemplative expectations for immortality and the afterlife—which range from a selfless merging with the divine to union that preserves personal distinction—and constructs an ‘experiential continuum of immortality.’ In addition to providing a helpful framework for discussing mystical and contemplative views, this continuum also proves useful for better understanding scholastic accounts of immortality, as the chapter demonstrates using the cases of Robert Grosseteste’s and Thomas Aquinas’s views about the final end for human beings.