II. Ethnic Doctrine of Immortality

Immortality: Among the civilized races of antiquity the idea of imperishableness was variously related to the soul. Whether the idea of infinity developed early (Max Milner), or late (Lubbock, Tiele), and how it was thought of, depends on the character and language of particular peoples. The development of ideas concerning a higher power of life, in accordance with the idea of everlasting joy or everlasting grief and with the conception of infinite, eternal being, corresponded more to the character of the Aryan peoples than to that of the Semites or even the Egyptians. The Phenicians rarely transcended the limits of the present world. The Egyptians, as indicated by the custom of preserving the body, were more serious concerning death and immortality. The Persians required the future life for the ethical fulfilment of their feeling of honor, war, and virtue. To the Hindu the change and transiency of this world were a dream from which he was to waken to the true changeless being. The people of the WestGreeks, Romans, Germans-had a more realistic sense of the relation of time and eternity; they thought of the gods as living the true life. Confucius (q.v.) hesitated to give a decisive judgment as to the fate of souls after death. Lao Tse (q.v.) taught a supernatural form of existence which belonged to the divine principle (tao="way", "word," "logos ") and to the" heavenly man." The ancient Egyptian doctrine of immortality was based on the conflict of light with darkness and the conquest of the former. The light-souls share in the conflict. Later emerges the thought of retribution, judgment of the dead, individual immortality, and reincarnation. For the earlier doctrine of immortality of the ancient Semites, see A. Jeremias, Hblle and Parodies bei den Babyloniern, Leipsic, 1903. For the Mohammedan view dependent on ancient Arabian and Christian ideas, cf. A. Sprenger, Das Leben wnd die Lehre dea Mohammed, chaps. 6, 7, 11 sqq., 1861-65. For the ancient Aryans (" soma," " devas," " asuras "), cf. Max Milner, Origin and Growth of Religion, London, 1898. For the Brahmanic doctrine of the Vedantas, cf . P. Deussen, Dos System der Vedanta, Leipsic, 1906. For Buddhism in its conflict with Brahminism, cf. H. Oldenberg, Buddha, pp. 273 sqq., 291, Berlin, 1881. For Paraeeism and its doctrine of souls enduring as guardian spirits, of. Hübachmann, JPT, 1879.

III. In Dogmatics

(1) Is the human soul mortal or immortal? An affirmative answer is given (a) by many Greek philosophers, especially the Orphics, Pythagoreans, and individual Stoics; (b) by anthropological dualists following Descartes, Leibnitz, Wolff, and Kant; (c) by philosophers emphasizing personality: C. H. Weisee, J. H. Fichte, LThici. Epicurus, Lucretius, Spinoza, Hume, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, Dilhring, Strauss, and the materialists answer in the negative. Voltaire, La Mettrie, Fries, and Darwin are non-committal. Hardly any philosopher asserts absolute annihilation, and even Democritus, Epicurus, and Pyrrho do not silence the voice of hope. On the other hand, no one affirms absolute immortality, not even John Scotus Erigena, J. G. Fichte, Schelling, or G. Th.

Fechner. (2) How is the imperishable element of the human soul thought of? Opposed to natural immortality, which corresponds to preexistence without beginning or is conceived of at least as correlative to natural inheritance through generation (Tmducianism), is endurance according to God's will in spite of natural mortality-for all (Cyprian), or for patriarchs, prophets, martyrs (Irenæus, Tertullian); according to other Church Fathers, there is an intermediate state (Justin, Hilary, Cyril of Alexandria) which either quickly passes (Hilary on Pa. lxv. 22) or is of longer duration, wherein is a, sleep of souls (psychopannyche), or for some of the righteous a purifying (either purgatory, Zech. xiii. 9; I Cor. iii. 13; Jude 23), or a migration of soul (metempsychosis), or change of body (metamorphosis). With the universal resurrection comes the idea of a partial awaking or restriction of bodily renewing to the pious (B. Weiss). That prayer and alms avail for the dead (II Macc. xii. 44-45) found early representatives; since 1439 masses and other services for the dead in purgatory have come to the front (see PURGATORr). (3) Teleologically, to what is the certainty of an imperishable existence necessary? (a) The individual eudemonistie wish; (b) the sympathies of friendship and family-love, hope of reunion with those who have gone home, desire for an imperishable enjoyment of the ideal, as art and science; (c) the ethical will permanently to cooperate for the realization of the idea, and confidence in the worth of all moral action and suffering; (d) before all, the thought of the universal harmony of the world, the miracle of existence, necessitates the religious appreciation of God as the Wise and Good.