Life after Death

by Hierotheos Vlachos, Esther Williams (Translator)

Ships from and sold by AtHOS

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

His Eminence Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlassios in Greece, is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the Orthodox spiritual life. A prolific writer, he has authored more than fifteen books, many of which have been translated into English. His Eminence’s theological vision may be summed up in the following quotation, taken from his The Science of Spiritual Medicine: “The whole therapeutic method of the Orthodox Church is not aimed simply at making human beings morally and socially balanced, but at re-establishing their relationship with God and one another. This comes about through the healing of the soul's wounds and the cure of the passions through the Sacraments and the Church's ascetic practice.”

Reviews

[Readius Maximus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was completely mind blowing. Maybe it's because it's my first encounter with the Orthodox view of what happens when you die. But it's 100 out of 5 stars. It's also a fantastic book to read during Lent as all ascetic works emphasize the importance of remembering death but in our Western secular world where death seems like a relief, this advice is hard to follow and understand in an Orthodox way.

The main topics are death, the toll houses, paradise and heaven, hades and hell, the Kingdom of God. Throughout all of this even though it doesn't always talk about it explicitly but is nevertheless communicated is what exactly repentance looks like and the cleaning of our nous.

The most interesting and mind blowing part is when he talks about the created verses uncreated energies of God. Which is the difference not only between Western and Eastern Christianity but between Orthodox and Western Civilization. I wonder if materialism is a necessary result of the uncreated energies of God?

There are three main stages of accent, purification, illumination, and deification.

Fairly obvious but through Adam sin entered the world and it is through our continued abuse of free will that is stays here. The major theological and philosophical problem in the West about Theodicy is largely negated in my opinion. God did not create sin we did and continue to sustain it pg. 315. Because God created us as dispassionate.

Hell is burning fire without light, while Heaven and illumination are light without the burring caustic fire caused by the energies of God.

Notes:

pg. 35 "The Nous is the purest part of the soul and the projector of the world."

pg. 56 "The whole of the Christian life is a preparation for death".

pg. 98 The fear of death leads to fearlessness and the overcoming of death.

pg. 139 The Latins identification of the energies and essence of God is what spawns the created and uncreated energies of God difference. And is the main difference between East and West.

pg. 171-172 It is the uncreated energies of God that purifies our passions in this life and opens the way for the Kingdom of God both now and after death. Also why Orthodox Saints have no equal.

pg. 190 Pagan's after the time of Christ were affected by Plato and viewed the body as a prison of the soul. Hence why Nietzsche blames Socrates for polluting his view of the celebration of 'life'. It is Christianity which redeems the view of the body through the life of the Saints and theosis contra Nietzsche. Of course Nietzsche was attacking Western dualism not Orthodoxy.

pg. 284 "Anyone who looks for the renewal of creation apart from deified man is laboring in vain."

pg. 294 "To practice virtue means we participate in God."

pg. 314 "But again I wish to repeat that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are synonymous with the vision of the uncreated Light, the deification of man and his union with God."

pg. 317 There was deification in the Old Testament.

pg. 327 "St Symeon is puzzled about how it is possible to enter the Kingdom of God after death if one has not attained a sense of it in the present life. He writes: "How can he who does not possess in himself the Kingdom of Heaven in a conscious way enter into it after death? How will one who does not see the Son dwelling in him with the Father through the Spirit be with them in the future?"

pg. 331 "Christianity, which is the true Philosophy, is a study of death."

pg. 333 Death is remembered in two ways. The first is rational and focuses on the coming judgement. The second is charismatic and is a spiritual gift that comes through experience and is a power that helps us prepare for our death.

[Joshua Finch]

I took this book by his Eminence, Metropolitan Hierotheos, with the same inquiry as the one by which I took up Fr. Trenham's study on Marriage and Virginity, that is to see what to hope for, and what to fear, concerning the last things, to increase motivation. This work succeeds in giving many insights, but you will have to think about it to clear up certain things, because this is rich and dense material. Only one question remained for me, about hell (between what St Gregory of Nyssa says about it in the chapter about him on the abolition of evil, and what St Nicodemus the Hagiorite says about it in pages 300-301), and the other seeming obscurities can be resolved. I would not discourage beginners from reading this, because it is helpful and a good complement to Fr. Rose's book on the topic - they both discuss the toll houses and after- or near-death experiences.

[Nikolaos Chapsas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύπλευρη προσέγγιση στο θέμα του θανάτου (το πιο σίγουρο και βέβαιο γεγονός στη ζωή μας) με βάση την ορθόδοξη χριστιανική διδασκαλία. Τι είναι ο θάνατος, τι γίνεται όταν η ψυχή αποχωρίζεται από το σώμα και που πηγαίνει, Παράδεισος και Κόλαση, Δευτέρα Παρουσία είναι μερικά ερωτήματα που απαντά ο συγγραφέας σύμφωνα με τα λεγόμενα του Ιησού, των Αποστόλων, των Αγίων Πατέρων...<<Γεννιόμαστε με την φθαρτότητα και την θνητότητα. Με την γέννηση ενός ανθρώπου γεννιέται ο συγκεκριμένος άνθρωπος που πρόκειται να πεθάνει. Όλος ο ανθρώπινος βίος είναι μια διαδοχή θανάτων>>.

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally like Metropolitan Hierotheos's books. He is a good teacher and presents the traditional Orthodox teachings. This books was a bit disappointing. Met. Hierotheos does present the traditional Orthodox teaching on life after death, including telonia ("toll houses"). I do not think it is very well written, or perhaps needed an editor or better translator. There is far too much repetition, he doesn't always explain his points well, and his reasoning is underdeveloped in many places. I was surprised at this book because everything else I've read from him has been quite good. This is not a bad book, just harder to get through than it needed to be.

For example, I appreciate the section on the teaching of St. Mark of Ephesus concerning the Latin teaching of "purgatory" and the purifying fire. However, it took far too long and too much effort to glean just a little actual information.

For anyone interested in this subject, I would recommend Fr. Seraphim Roses's book "The Soul After Death". That book is not without it's problems, but is more concise and gives basically the same teaching.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death is the most fearsome mystery. Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafptakos covers a lot in this book, countering several misconceptions about the Life After Death by spreading light on the subject from an Orthodox viewpoint: he does this first and foremost by using the teachings of the Holy Fathers. Just a few of the subjects discussed in this book are:

What happens when the soul leaves the body
The intermediate state of souls
An Orthodox understanding of 'the Purifying fire' as well as a brief historical explanation of the council of Farrara-Florence
The death of infants (what happens to them after death?)
The second coming of Christ
As well as diachronic eschatology.

This book is brilliant and is one of the best I've read on the subject.