-How can thinking of oneself as either a soul or a body influence what one’s conception of the afterlife is like in different ways? Use examples from the readings to illustrate and give evidence for your answer.
Length: 3-4 double-spaced pages. Due by 12 noon on thursday 7/22
A little guidance on this assignment. You have two primary sources this week. One is by Plato, and it argues that you are a soul, not a body, and it argues for a certain outlook on death and the afterlife on that basis. The other is a set of Biblical readings on death and resurrection which collectively argue the reverse: that you are a body, which (according to some of the passages) will rise again in a resurrection. These two views are not the same, though they are often confused in our modern, western culture, since we have been influenced by both. In fact, one primary thing I’ll be looking for in your essays is: can you tell the difference between them? How are they different?
Your third reading is a secondary source, by John Hick. I want you to read John Hick’s essay as an example of the kind of thing I want you to do: he’s trying to tell the difference between two traditions that to the untrained eye might look the same. He’s trying to show the difference between thinking of oneself as a soul, in the Platonic tradition, and thinking of oneself as a body that can be resurrected, in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
So, I want your essay to use that as a model: what are some differences that you can see between thinking of yourself as a soul, which is immortal by its very nature, and thinking of yourself as a mortal, vulnerable body, which will die but may live again? Use the texts, read closely, put some thought into it.
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