Life after Death According to the Orthodox Tradition

Description

This book offers an accessible and well organized
synthesis of the ancient Christian understanding of death and the afterlife.
French philosopher and patrologist Jean-Claude Larchet draws both from
Scriptures and a multiplicity of early Christian writings, both Greek and Latin,
in demolishing false conceptions such as reincarnation, whilst setting forth
with clarity an authentically Christian understanding.

The reader will gain understanding of both the time and modalities of
the bodily resurrection, the nature of the Particular and the Universal
judgments, and of the Church’s intercessory prayer for the departed. He notes
that some divergences between eastern and western traditions have existed since
the fifth century and argues that these became of much greater importance after
the twelfth century, when the Roman Catholic Church developed the notion of
Purgatory.

This work will be of benefit both to the Orthodox Christian reader in
enhancing their own understanding of the Church’s teaching, and to Roman
Catholics, Protestants, and others who desire to become acquainted with the
fullness of the Christian tradition on death and the afterlife. All will
encounter the abundant heritage of “the faith which was once for all delivered
to the saints” (Jude 3).