Heaven and Hell in Christian Thought
Charles Taliaferro, Stewart Goetz · 2024 · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This source is used as context evidence across 5 linked claims and 5 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.
Summary
Survey of philosophical and theological treatments of heaven and hell, including punishment, reward, beatitude, annihilation, universalism, and the moral problems raised by eternal destiny claims.
How this source is used on the map
Reference for claims about postmortem destinations within Christian frameworks; it clarifies the conceptual options before any evidential claim is assessed.
Citation record
- Authors
- Charles Taliaferro, Stewart Goetz
- Year
- 2024
- Publication
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Source type
- Philosophy reference
- Map role
- context
- Credibility level
- primary
- Citation status
- Verified
- DOI
- Not recorded
- PubMed
- Not recorded
- Not recorded
Linked claims
A near-universal religious claim with massive cultural footprint and zero empirical evidence. Sits downstream of theism and survival-after-death — its plausibility tracks theirs.
Massively documented in tradition, zero direct evidence, and substantial harm record from belief — eternal-torment doctrines have warped lives for centuries.
NDEs, past-life cases, terminal lucidity and mediumship cluster suggestively. Each line is contested; together they earn a hearing.
The claim that a literal, personal adversary — Satan, Iblis, Mara, Ahriman — is an active intelligent force behind evil and temptation, considered here at the generic level rather than within any specific tradition.
The claim that a personal, conscious deity created and continues to engage with the universe — considered here at the generic level rather than within any specific tradition.
Related evidence hubs
Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Whether anything of mind continues.
Evidence around dying, near-death experience, and what (if anything) continues.
The nature of subjective experience.
Related research reports
A comparative guide to the strongest survival-adjacent evidence: NDEs, terminal lucidity, deathbed visions, past-life memories, mediumship, and after-death communication.
What NDE studies support, what they do not prove, and why the phenomenon remains one of the strongest spiritual-adjacent evidence clusters.
Related sources
Direct background for any claim about whether something of the person survives death, and a useful guardrail against treating survival as a single simple proposition.
The leading academic group publishing on cases of children claiming past-life memories and on Greyson's NDE work.
Background for theological readings of contemporary cosmology, useful for separating genuine cosmological evidence from retrospective religious interpretation.
Frames the anthropic / multiverse / design debate that simulation, mathematical-universe, and theism claims all engage with.
The reference for what mind-body dualism means and why most contemporary philosophers reject it.
Any claim about surviving death or being reincarnated presupposes a theory of personal identity. This entry sets the terms.