What do the great world religions say about the soul and its ultimate destiny? This book, the third in Keith Ward's magisterial tetralogy on comparative religion, presents the beliefs of six major traditions about human nature, the way to immortality, and the end of the world. It offers a major philosophical analysis of beliefs in reincarnation and the resurrection of the body. Finally it constructs a Christian interpretation, in the light of scientific knowledge and a global religious worldview.
1. Introduction
2. Non-Dualism (Advaita Vedanta)
3. The Search for the Self (Vaishnava Hinduism)
4. The Doctrine of Rebirth
5. Buddhism and the Self
6. Evolutionary Naturalism
7. The Embodied Soul
8. Original Sin
9. The Doctrine of Atonement
10. Salvation by Grace
11. The World to Come
12. Human Destiny in Judaism and Islam
13. Human Destiny in Christianity
14. The Ultimate End of All Things
15. Conclusion
[Keith Ward is] one of Britain's most prodigious and profound theological and philosophical Christian minds writing today. --
Churchman For sheer creativity and ingenuity, Ward is one of the greatest systematicians working in Britain today. --
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