Life After Death: Four Views

All major religions in history have offered hope of some kind of afterlife to answer the perennial interest in the question of life after death. This volume brings together renowned experts in the philosophy of religion, Graham Oppy, David Apolloni, Shyam Ranganathan, Joshua Farris and Steven B. Cowan, to present four key starting points in the life after death debate. Providing a lively and collaborative dialogue between leaders in the field, each thinker defends a particular view of the afterlife and critically interacts with the alternative perspectives. They focus on the positions of No Life After Death, the Immortality of the Soul, Reincarnation and Resurrection, with each chapter drawing on views from naturalism, antiquity, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism and Yoga. This engagement moves the current debate forward to consider global perspectives whilst the clear and accessible structure allows for a developed exploration of the central issues at stake. Incorporating views spanning secular and religious spheres in both the east and west, this comprehensive guide will be welcomed by students and scholars of contemporary philosophy of religion and comparative philosophy.

Steven B. Cowan is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Lincoln Memorial University, USA. His scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as Religious Studies, Faith and Philosophy, and Philosophia Christi. He is the editor of Five Views on Apologetics (Zondervan, 2000) and Who Runs the Church? Four Views on Church Government (Zondervan, 2004); the co-author (with James Spiegel) of The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy (Broadman & Holman, 2009); and co-editor (with James Spiegel) of Idealism and Christian Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2016).

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University, Australia.

David Apolloni is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Augsburg University, USA.

Shyam Ranganathan is a member of the Department of Philosophy, and York Center for Asian Research, at York University, Toronto, Canada and founder of the Yoga Philosophy Institute.

Joshua R. Farris is an Anglican Priest, Canon Theologian, Visiting Research Prof. at Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany, and Professor at Kairos University, USA. He is the Director of Soul Science Ministries. He has recently published The Creation of Self and co-editor of The Origin of the Soul.