Resurrection, Hell and the Afterlife

Mark Finney is Lecturer in Religion in the Department of History at the University of Sheffield. My recent publications include, Honour and Conflict in the Ancient World (T&T Clark, 2012). My research interests include: concepts of afterlife in Jewish and Christian traditions and conflict and violence in the Abrahamic faiths.

"F. has certainly given us much to think about. His assertion that Paul’s afterlife is consistent with his exposition of Second Temple literature in chapter 3, as well as the opposition he sees between Paul’s resurrected Christ as a ‘glorified spiritual entity’ and the resurrected fleshly body of Christ in the Gospels of Luke and John, is well argued."– Seth Cole, SOTS Book List 2017"Finney’s work uses reception history to trace the major movements in the history of an idea and provides an interesting window into a concept that has been at the centre of theological reflection for millennia. His thoughtful conclusions inspire the reader to think seriously about the way that we employ the afterlife in our own world, seeing an old idea from new angles."- Meghan Henning, University of Dayton, OH, USA in Theology journal, issue 120.4 (July/August)."Overall, Finney’s work is to be praised for its scope and ambition. It is refreshing to encounter a biblical studies monograph that attempts to do­ so much with such brevity and accessibility to non-specialists." - Reed Carlson, Harvard University, Reading Religion, Sep. 2018

• Introduction 1. Afterlife in Antiquity: Post-mortem Existence in its Greco-Roman Context 2. Biblical Beginnings: Death and Afterlife in the Hebrew Bible 3. The Priority of the Soul: Constructions of Afterlife in Second Temple Judaism 4. Life after Death in Additional Jewish Literature: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Later Rabbinic Thought 5. New Testament Beginnings: Afterlife in the Thought of the Apostle Paul 6. The Priority of the Body: Post-mortem Existence in the Later New Testament 7. The Rise of Gehenna: Afterlife in Early Christianity 8. What the…? Developments of Hell in its Jewish and Christian Contexts 9. Conclusion