The Mystery of Death: Philosophy’s Greatest Problem?

“For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.” – Socrates, in Plato’s Apology

It has been said that death is the greatest problem in philosophy. If we can find the answer to this mystery, many other things will be understood. Death is indeed a remarkable fact, and it is not to be taken for granted. It’s a remarkable fact about human existence – that life is finite: it starts at a point and then at another point it ceases, it ends. This is true of every human life. And, of course, death is something that we are all confronted with when a loved one passes away – what has become of them? It’s a fact that begs for explanation – not a mere physical explanation of how it is that the body breaks down, but a larger and deeper explanation of why death should be part of reality, and of our experience.

I for one find it inconceivable that we exist merely for a finite span of time. The fact of our existence is so stunning, so remarkable – it is not to be taken for granted. Surely a sentient being – a being with consciousness and thought and emotion – is of great, great value. Consciousness, thought, and emotion – there is such wonder and depth and mystery! Can we possibly say that a thing as significant as a living, sentient being would be simply snuffed out of existence like a candle? Can we answer this miracle of existence by saying we will simply cease to be? No, the heart and mind cry out together against this idea: We know that the road goes ever on, through death and beyond death. We know that there is a meaning and purpose to our existence that goes beyond this mortal life.

There is a seed of hope burning deep in every heart – confident, grounded, self-evident hope* for some great eucatastrophic (see “The Eucatastrophe”) climax at the end of all things – of history, of our lives, even of all reality (see “The Problem of Good,” “Whispers of Eternity: A Deeper Longing”). It is certainly glory and joy that awaits us, not the dark abyss of nonexistence. There are moments for each of us when this becomes clear as day: perhaps it is hearing a beautiful piece of music, or seeing your newborn child, or gazing up at the starry host above. It is self-evident.*

Death is shrouded in mystery. It is a great mystery, this black veil which awaits us all and towards which we hasten in time. We will all come face to face with it. What lies beyond it? What does it mean to pass through it? If our mortal bodies are left behind, what form of existence awaits us? Surely there are answers to these questions, surely the answers are among death’s secrets…

*For my argument that the heart, or emotion, can guide us to truth in a rational and reasonable way, see my posts on “The Reason of the Heart.”

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Christianity in Literature and Film

Christian themes in literature:

• Peter Kreeft on Christianity in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• My favorite passages from The Lord of the Rings
• J. R. R. Tolkien on Christianity and "Eucatastrophe"
• Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life
• "The Murderer and the Harlot Reading the Raising of Lazarus": an excerpt from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
• The Theme of Love in The Brothers Karamazov:
• Bearing the Sufferings and Sins of Others
• The Redeeming Power of Love
• Alyosha's Moment
• And of course, Harry Potter

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“The Murderer and the Harlot” Reading the Raising of Lazarus (Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment)

An excerpt from Crime and Punishment. Sonia and Raskolnikov, both desperately crushed by poverty, read together of the raising of Lazarus:

Everything about Sonia seemed to him stranger and more wonderful every moment. He carried the book to the candle and began to turn over the pages.

"Where is the story of Lazarus?" he asked suddenly.

Sonia looked obstinately at the ground and would not answer. She was standing sideways to the table.

"Where is the raising of Lazarus? Find it for me, Sonia."

She stole a glance at him.

"You are not looking in the right place. . . . It's in the fourth gospel," she whispered sternly, without looking at him.

"Find it and read it to me," he said. He sat down with his elbow on the table, leaned his head on his hand and looked away sullenly, prepared to listen…

…Sonia opened the book and found the place. Her hands were shaking, her voice failed her. Twice she tried to begin and could not bring out the first syllable.

"Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany . . ." she forced herself at last to read, but at the third word her voice broke like an overstrained string. There was a catch in her breath…

…"And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

"Then Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went and met Him: but Mary sat still in the house.

"Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

"But I know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee. . . ."

Then she stopped again with a shamefaced feeling that her voice would quiver and break again.

"Jesus said unto her, thy brother shall rise again.

"Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live.

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?

"She saith unto Him,"

(And drawing a painful breath, Sonia read distinctly and forcibly as though she were making a public confession of faith.)

"Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God Which should come into the world."

She stopped and looked up quickly at him, but controlling herself went on reading. Raskolnikov sat without moving, his elbows on the table and his eyes turned away. She read to the thirty-second verse.

"Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled,

"And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto Him, Lord, come and see.

"Jesus wept.

"Then said the Jews, behold how He loved him!

"And some of them said, could not this Man which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?"

Raskolnikov turned and looked at her with emotion. Yes, he had known it! She was trembling in a real physical fever. He had expected it. She was getting near the story of the greatest miracle and a feeling of immense triumph came over her. Her voice rang out like a bell; triumph and joy gave it power. The lines danced before her eyes, but she knew what she was reading by heart. At the last verse "Could not this Man which opened the eyes of the blind . . ." dropping her voice she passionately reproduced the doubt, the reproach and censure of the blind disbelieving Jews, who in another moment would fall at His feet as though struck by thunder, sobbing and believing. . . . "And he, he – too, is blinded and unbelieving, he, too, will hear, he, too, will believe, yes, yes! At once, now," was what she was dreaming, and she was quivering with happy anticipation.

"Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

"Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days."

She laid emphasis on the word four.

"Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

"Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.

"And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me.

"And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

"And he that was dead came forth."

(She read loudly, cold and trembling with ecstasy, as though she were seeing it before her eyes.)

"Bound hand and foot with graveclothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go.

"Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on Him."

She could read no more, closed the book and got up from her chair quickly.

"That is all about the raising of Lazarus," she whispered severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not daring to raise her eyes to him. She still trembled feverishly. The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.

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The Paradoxes of Christianity

Here is a list of links to the each post in this series of posts I've been doing on paradoxes:

The Paradoxes of Christianity
The Paradox of the Trinity: Unity and Diversity
The Paradox of Christ: God and Man
The Paradox of ‘Beauty Marred’: A Fallen World
The Paradox of God’s Kingdom on Earth: “Already, But Not Yet”
The Paradox of Sinful Man
The Paradox of Free Will and Predestination
The Paradox of Jesus
The Paradoxes of Jesus’ Way of Life
The Paradox of “The Last Shall Be First”
The Paradox of “Foolish Wisdom”
The Paradox of “When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong”
Socrates on “Foolish Wisdom” in Plato’s Apology
The Paradox of “Whoever Loses His Life Will Find It”
Saint Paul and C. S. Lewis: Death to Self and Life in Christ
The Paradox of “Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing”
John Adams: “Rejoice Evermore!”
The Paradox of Awaiting Eternity: Matthew 6 and 1 Corinthians 7
C. S. Lewis and A. W. Tozer on Joy and Longing
The Paradox of “My Yoke Is Easy, and My Burden Is Light”
The Paradox of Love (John 13:14)
The Paradox of the Empty Cup Overflowing, “Having Nothing, Yet Possessing Everything”
A Variety of Language, But One Paradoxical Truth
The Paradox of the Cross
G. K. Chesterton on the Paradoxes of Christianity
“That Queer Twist About It That Real Things Have”
The Valley of Vision: “Let Me Learn by Paradox”

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Wave-Particle Duality and Bohr’s Complementarity: Paradox in Physics

One of my physics professors mentioned that the realms of his two greatest quests for truth, Christianity and physics, were both filled with paradoxes. I’ve already given many instances of paradoxes in Christianity. But consider the physical world as well. A particle is the same thing as a wave – matter/energy is both simultaneously, but only one characteristic (either one observes, a wave, or one observes a particle) can be observed at any moment. (This is closely related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.) This concept of wave-particle duality influenced Niels Bohr as he developed his philosophy of complementarity, which states that a particle can have seemingly contradictory properties, but that we cannot observe both properties at once. The physical world, like Christianity, seems to bear the mark of paradox – perhaps here too we see a glimpse of the Creator.

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The Valley of Vision: “Let Me Learn by Paradox”

From The Valley of Vision:

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
that every good work or thought found in me
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty
thy glory in my valley.

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“That Queer Twist About It That Real Things Have"

…I’ve described paradoxes in God himself, in his creation, and especially in the way of life he has demonstrated, in Jesus Christ, for his people. I’ve suggested that paradoxes in the Christian life are derived from the cross of Christ, which was planned by God as the ultimate revelation of his character, and that the very fabric of created reality is marked by paradox. Indeed, if what I have called paradox (see the first post in this series, “Paradoxes in Christianity”) can be found in the Triune God himself, as I have suggested, and God designs creation such that it is marked by the his attributes and qualities, then we would expect no less. God is seen in creation, and in what he does within that creation, and if is paradoxical, then we ought to expect to see the beauty of paradox in what he does.

These paradoxes are not merely doctrines of the intellect or vague descriptions of reality, but tensions that affect our day-to-day lives. I hope that anyone who sees these paradoxes in Scripture will not only acknowledge their presence there, but find the secret of what it means to live as the last and lowliest servant, as one who has lost his life and emptied himself, and is therefore rewarded by God with the treasure of overflowing joy in knowing Jesus Christ. I for one have much to learn about how one follows Jesus’ paradoxical way in our world today.

All these posts have assumed the truth of Christianity, and I hope to share with fellow believers the great beauty I see in Christianity. To the skeptic, I say this: consider G. K. Chesterton’s description of the paradoxes of Christianity in Orthodoxy. Even if you don’t believe the Bible, consider whether these paradoxes do or do not seem to describe life, or perhaps whether or not there is a measure of beauty in them, as I think there is, and as Chesterton seemed to think as well. If beauty is the mark of truth, then perhaps Jesus’ words are, to a limited extent, their own defense.

“Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed…It has just that queer twist about it that real things have.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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