Christian mortalism
Christian mortalism is the Christian belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal, and may include the belief that the soul is "sleeping" after death until the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, a time known as the intermediate state. "Soul sleep" is often used as a pejorative term, so the more neutral term "mortalism" was also used in the nineteenth century, and "Christian mortalism" since the 1970s. Historically the term psychopannychism was also used, despite problems with the etymology and application. The term thnetopsychism has also been used; for example, Gordon Campbell identified John Milton as believing in the latter.
Christian mortalism stands in contrast with the traditional Christian belief that the souls of the dead immediately go to heaven, or hell, or purgatory. Christian mortalism has been taught by several theologians and church organizations throughout history, while also facing opposition from aspects of Christian organized religion. The Catholic Church condemned such thinking in the Fifth Council of the Lateran as "erroneous assertions". Supporters include eighteenth-century religious figure Henry Layton, among many others.
Etymology and terminology
Since the phrases "soul sleep" or "soul death" do not occur either in the Bible or in early Patristic materials, an explanation is required for the origin of the term. Additionally, several other terms have been introduced which relate to the view. Modern theologians have used the term "Christian mortalism" and related wordings from the 21st century onwards.Soul sleep
The phrase soul sleep appears to have been popularized by John Calvin in the subtitle to his Latin tract Psychopannychia. The title of the booklet comes from Greek psyche with pan-nychis, so Psychopannychia, originally, represents Calvin's view that the soul was conscious and active after death.The title and subtitle of the 1542 Strasbourg 1st edition read:.
The title and subtitle of the 1545 2nd Latin edition read:.
The 1558 French edition was a translation of that of the 1545 2nd edition:
Other terms
- "Psychopannychism" – In the Latin it is clearer that Psychopannychia is actually the refutation of, the opposite of, the idea of soul sleep. The version may have caused the confusion that by -pannychis Calvin meant sleep. The subtitle was taken up as. The tract first appeared in English as.
- "Hypnopsychism" – from hypno- + psyche was a more correct coinage from Greek than that of Calvin's editor. Eustratios of Constantinople denounced mortalism as a heresy using this term.
- "Thnetopsychism" – A possibly contrasting phrase is . The term has its origin in the descriptions of Eusebius of Caesarea and John of Damascus of mortalist views among Arab Christians, In the 1600s also this phrase was applied also to the views of Tyndale, Luther and other mortalists, from awareness that Calvin's term Psychopannychia originally described his own belief, not the belief he was calling error. The term is also used of the view of the Anabaptists. Their view is that the soul dies, with the body to be recalled to life at the resurrection of the dead, or that the soul is not separate from the body and so there is no "spiritual" self to survive bodily death. In both cases, the deceased does not begin to enjoy a reward or suffer a punishment until Judgment Day.
Mortalist arguments
Theological arguments
Theological arguments that contended that the continued existence of the soul was not taught in the Bible were made by mortalists such as Francis Blackburne, Joseph Priestley, and Samuel Bourne. Mortalists such as Richard Overton advanced a combination of theological and philosophical arguments in favor of soul sleep. Thomas Hobbes likewise made extensive use of theological argumentation. Some mortalists viewed their beliefs as a return to original Christian teaching. Mortalists’ theological arguments were also used to contest the Catholic doctrine of purgatory and masses for the dead.The British Evangelical Alliance ACUTE report states the doctrine of soul sleep is a "significant minority evangelical view" that has "grown within evangelicalism in recent years". Although in modern times some have attempted to introduce the concept of soul sleep into Eastern Orthodox thought about life after death, it has never been a part of traditional Eastern Orthodox teaching, and it even contradicts the Eastern Orthodox understanding of the intercession of the Saints.
Mortalists argue for soul sleep using Bible verses such as , , , , , , , and . Mortalists point to and , where the Tree of Life is mentioned. It is argued that these passages, along with teach that human beings will naturally die without continued access to God's life-giving power.
As a general rule, soul sleep goes hand in hand with annihilationism, that is, the belief that the souls of the wicked will be destroyed in Gehenna fire rather than suffering eternal torment. The two ideas are not exactly equivalent, however, because in principle God may annihilate a soul that was previously created immortal. While annihilationism places emphasis on the active destruction of a person, soul sleep places emphasis on a person's dependence upon God for life; the extinction of the person is thus a passive consequence of separation from God, much like natural death is a consequence of prolonged separation from food, water, and air.
Mortalist writers, such as Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, have often argued that the doctrine of natural immortality stems not from Hebrew thought as presented in the Bible, but rather from pagan influence, particularly Greek philosophy and the teachings of Plato, or Christian tradition. Bishop of Durham N.T. Wright noted that teaches "God… alone is immortal," while in it says that immortality only comes to human beings as a gift through the gospel. Immortality is something to be sought after therefore it is not inherent to all humanity.
These groups may claim that the doctrine of soul sleep reconciles two seemingly conflicting traditions in the Bible: the ancient Hebrew concept that the human being is mortal with no meaningful existence after death, and the later Jewish and Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead and personal immortality after Judgment Day.
Lexical arguments
In the late eighteenth century, the standard Hebrew lexicon and grammar of John Parkhurst expressed the view that the traditional rendering of the Hebrew word nephesh as reference to an immortal soul had no lexical support. Mortalists in the nineteenth century used lexical arguments to deny the traditional doctrines of hell and the immortal soul.Scientific arguments
The eighteenth-century mortalist Henry Layton presented arguments based on physiology. Scientific arguments became important to the nineteenth-century discussion of soul sleep and natural immortality, and mortalist Miles Grant cited extensively from a number of scientists who observed that the immortality of the soul was unsupported by scientific evidence.Historical proponents of the mortality of the soul
The mortality of the soul has had a number of advocates throughout the history of both Judaism and Christianity.Judaism
Modern scholars believe the concept of an immortal soul going to bliss or torment after death entered mainstream Judaism after the Babylonian exile and existed throughout the Second Temple period, though both 'soul sleep' and 'soul death', were also held.Soul sleep is present in certain Second Temple period pseudepigraphal works, later rabbinical works, and among medieval era rabbis such as Abraham Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, and Joseph Albo.
Some authorities within Conservative Judaism, notably Neil Gillman, also support the notion that the souls of the dead are unconscious until the resurrection.
Traditional rabbinic Judaism, however, has always been of the opinion that belief in immortality of at least most souls, and punishment and reward after death, was a consistent belief back through the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Traditional Judaism reads the Torah accordingly. As an example, the punishment of kareth is understood to mean that the soul is cut off from God in the afterlife.
Christian views
Second century
In the second half of the second century, Tatian wrote: "The soul is not in itself immortal... If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last at the end of the world with the body, receiving death by punishment in immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved." Tatian's contemporary Athenagoras of Athens taught that souls sleep dreamlessly between death and resurrection: "hose who are dead and those who sleep are subject to similar states, as regards at least the stillness and the absence of all sense of the present or the past, or rather of existence itself and their own life."In Octavius, an account of a debate between a Pagan and a Christian by Marcus Minucius Felix, the Christian in the debate takes mortalism to be a matter of common agreement:
Third to seventh centuries
Mortalism in the early church in this period is testified by Eusebius of Caesarea:This synod in Arabia would have been during the reign of Emperor Philip the Arab. Redepenning was of the opinion that Eusebius' terminology here, "the human soul dies" was probably that of their critics rather than the Arabian Christians' own expression and they were more likely simply "psychopannychists", believers in "soul sleep".
Some Syriac writers such as Aphrahat, Ephrem and Narsai believed in the dormition, or "sleep", of the soul, in which "...souls of the dead...are largely inert, having lapsed into a state of sleep, in which they can only dream of their future reward or punishments." John of Damascus denounced the ideas of some Arab Christians as thnetopsychism. Eustratios of Constantinople denounced this and what he called hypnopsychism. The issue was connected to that of the intercession of saints. The writings of Christian ascetic Isaac of Nineveh, reflect several perspectives which include soul sleep.