Life after Death According to the Orthodox Tradition

by Jean-Claude Larchet

Life after Death according to the Orthodox Tradition presents the teachings from Orthodox Church tradition. On a few points, these teachings differ significantly from those of the Catholic and Protestant confessions. Some divergences between eastern and western traditions have existed since the fifth century, but have been considerably accentuated since the twelfth century, when the West, to borrow an expression from the historian Jacques Le Goff, ‘invented Purgatory.’ The Latin tradition is, however, in its roots, in perfect agreement with the eastern tradition. Also, although in our references we give the greatest space to the Greek Fathers, we will surely cite convergent or complementary teachings and testimonies of the Latin Fathers and hagiographers of antiquity. We hope in this way to make better known to Orthodox the teachings of their own often scattered about and poorly known tradition, and also to acquaint Catholic or Protestant readers with teachings unknown to them or which long ago ceased being within the compass of their faith, but which nevertheless belong to the rich patrimony of an ancient Christian tradition which, in its origins, is or should be common to all.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Christianity, Spirituality, Death

348 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2001

About the author

Jean-Claude Larchet, né le 9 août 1949 à Badonviller (Meurthe-et-Moselle), est un patrologue et théologien orthodoxe français.

Auteur de nombreux ouvrages publiés aux éditions du Cerf et traduits dans dix-neuf langues, il est notamment spécialiste de Maxime le Confesseur.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a small shelf of Orthodox books on life after death; I think this superb synthesis by Jean-Claude Larchet is the best of the lot by a good margin. Larchet applies his usual sober judgment and vast scholarship to produce a powerful summary of the Fathers' teaching on death, the progress of the soul after death, its fate in the time before the Last Judgment, and finally what the Church has to say about the Last Judgment itself. He concludes with a sobering chapter entitled "Preparing Oneself for Death and the Life Beyond."

Not surprisingly, a lot of space is given to the "Toll House" teaching, its support and its detractors. This is necessary because a small gaggle of Orthodox writers have kept a debate going about the topic for several decades. Larchet simply presents the massive body of Patristic evidence for the teaching, then presents some helpful comments to put it in perspective.

I had one quibble with this magnificent book. It seems that somewhere in the home stretch, the proofreader went out for coffee: the final chapters are full of typos.

This is a powerful, sobering book. I think any reader who wants to know what the Church has taught about life and death through the ages will come away informed and edified. I'll close with a striking quote from Abba Isaiah from Larchet's closing chapter:

Think to yourself daily, I have only this day to do something in this world, and you will not sin before God.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life after Death According to the Orthodox Tradition was an interesting exploration of several ideas that receive little attention in the west. While aerial toll houses are relatively well known, I found the discussion of the soul's condition in the days and weeks immediately after death particularly interesting.

The book doesn't really present an argument, more a synthesis of patristic thought on the topic, extensively quoting the Church Fathers from beginning to end and allowing them to speak for themselves. Some sections were especially compelling, particularly the treatment of hell as a privation rather than something positively created by God.

"One of the chief objections voiced to the assertion of hell’s eternity is that the latter is incompatible with the existence of a good and merciful God. However, the origin of hell is not, as we have seen, God’s will, but the will of the devil, the demons and certain people. Hell, like evil, is not a positive ontological reality; it has only a privative existence; it exists for those subject to it only as the absence of the benefits of the Kingdom only because of a rejection of God. By this very fact it has not been created by God. As for its eternity, it follows from the possibility of the devil’s, the demons’ and men’s free choice to persist in evil and reject right to the end God’s eternal and uncreated grace. Bessarion of Nicaea affirms: “The justice of eternal punishment becomes apparent above all in the irrevocable disposition of the unruly will of sinners, for to the will’s eternal perversion is due an eternal punishment."

The recurring emphasis on humanity as one body awaiting its final fulfilment together. Even where I disagreed, there was a great deal that prompted reflection.

"St Gregory of Nyssa explains that originally, by creating man, God did not create an individual but “all the fullness of the nature together;” “in the Divine foreknowledge and power all humanity is included in the first creation.” God not only knew that Adam was going to sin and would beget children after that, but He also knew, the One “who holds all limits in His grasp … how great in number humanity will be in the sum of its individuals.

Now seeing that the full number of men pre-conceived by the operation of foreknowledge will come into life … God, Who governs all things in certain order and sequence … He who beholds the future equally with the present … also foreknew the time coextensive with the creation of men, so that the extent of time should be adapted for the entrances of the pre-determined souls, and that the flux and motion of time should halt at the moment when humanity is no longer produced.” And so the end of time will occur “when the generation of men is completed;” “humanity also should be changed from the corruptible and earthly to the impassable and eternal” when “the full complement of human nature has reached the limit of the pre-determined measure, because there is no longer anything to be made up in the way of increase to the number of souls."

My main criticism would (naturally be) the treatment of purgatory, which at times was weak and bordered on like a six-hundred-year-old straw man. The position presented often amounted to saying, "We don't believe in purgatory like the Latins; we simply believe that some souls undergo post-mortem purification, may be temporarily detained, are aided by the prayers and liturgies of the Church, and become fit to behold God—but there's no literal purgatorial fire." A distinction which struck me as considerably smaller than the rhetoric surrounding it would suggest.

Overall though, I found it to be a worthwhile read, particularly as a survey of the Orthodox patristic tradition, even if some of the polemics against Catholic theology felt dated and less convincing than the author perhaps intended.