ABSTRACT
Speculation about what a heavenly existence would be like has been a pervasive feature of human thought down through the centuries. A familiar approach to engaging in such speculation proceeds as follows. First, one identifies some key structural feature of heavenly existence, such as its being everlasting or free from all evil and suffering. The structural feature in question is posited either on the basis of intuitions about what heaven would have to be like or by appeal to a religious tradition, or a mixture of the two. Next, one tries to ascertain whether some structural feature of human existence as we take it to be here and now, such as our being free in a morally significant sense, is compatible with the structural feature of heavenly existence that has been singled out. This chapter too will follow this basic template, focusing on structural features pertaining to the character of human embodiment. The chapter asks whether and to what extent heavenly existence as conceived of within the Christian tradition has room for several structural features that are so characteristic of our mortal embodiment here and now.
