After a short overview of angels in Islam, this entry begins with a description of the role angels play in the Qur’an, focusing on their appearance in prophetic narratives, in descriptions of heaven and hell, and in debates the Qur’an has with its polytheist interlocutors. While the Qur’an ...
This article explores the Christian notion of the resurrection of the dead under four headings: finality, individuality, communality and hope. For each, it takes its starting point in 1 Corinthians 15, and from there explores the debates and controversies associated with each basic affirmat...
This entry analyses biblical and subsequent Christian approaches to new creation, under the rubrics ‘the good’, ‘the new’, and ‘the beautiful’. The introduction sketches points of debate: ‘new creation’ as realized or eschatological, renewed or utterly new, as heaven or New Jerusalem, and...
Purgatory is a place, state, or stage in the Christian afterlife where, after death, the soul is purged of minor, unexpiated sin so that it can be fit for heaven. ‘Purgatory’ derives from the Latin purgare (to purge) and hence as the noun purgatorium it is a place of purgation and purific...