Divided minds and divine judgement: dissociative identity disorder, heaven and hell, and the resurrection of the body

Harvey Tait Cawdron

doi:10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093

Divided minds and divine judgement: dissociative identity disorder, heaven and hell, and the resurrection of the body

Harvey Tait Cawdron

School of Divinity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In this paper, the author argues that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a disorder in which seemingly independent identities (alters) arise within the same individual, can have considerable consequences in Christian theology. The author shall focus on traditional Christian understandings of the afterlife. The author shall begin by outlining DID, and shall argue that in some DID cases, alters appear to be different persons according to some definitions of personhood in Christian theology. The author shall then illustrate the difficulty this raises for two influential ideas in the Christian tradition: the heaven and hell understanding of the afterlife, and the idea of the resurrection of the body. Finally, the author shall consider some objections to the problem, and shall highlight which responses are the most plausible.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	168-193
Journal	TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology
Volume	7
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2023

Keywords

Dissociative identity disorder
Personhood
Heaven and hell
Bodily resurrection

Access to Document

10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

2023_TL_Divided-minds_CCBYNCND
Copyright © 2023 Harvey Cawdron. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Final published version, 422 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/theologica/article/view/64093Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{68d65805169f448c99273f1a7728247e,

title = "Divided minds and divine judgement: dissociative identity disorder, heaven and hell, and the resurrection of the body",

abstract = "In this paper, the author argues that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a disorder in which seemingly independent identities (alters) arise within the same individual, can have considerable consequences in Christian theology. The author shall focus on traditional Christian understandings of the afterlife. The author shall begin by outlining DID, and shall argue that in some DID cases, alters appear to be different persons according to some definitions of personhood in Christian theology. The author shall then illustrate the difficulty this raises for two influential ideas in the Christian tradition: the heaven and hell understanding of the afterlife, and the idea of the resurrection of the body. Finally, the author shall consider some objections to the problem, and shall highlight which responses are the most plausible.",

keywords = "Dissociative identity disorder, Personhood, Heaven and hell, Bodily resurrection",

author = "Cawdron, {Harvey Tait}",

year = "2023",

month = may,

day = "1",

doi = "10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "168--193",

journal = "TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology",

issn = "2593-0265",

publisher = "Catholic University of Louvain",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Divided minds and divine judgement

T2 - dissociative identity disorder, heaven and hell, and the resurrection of the body

AU - Cawdron, Harvey Tait

PY - 2023/5/1

Y1 - 2023/5/1

N2 - In this paper, the author argues that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a disorder in which seemingly independent identities (alters) arise within the same individual, can have considerable consequences in Christian theology. The author shall focus on traditional Christian understandings of the afterlife. The author shall begin by outlining DID, and shall argue that in some DID cases, alters appear to be different persons according to some definitions of personhood in Christian theology. The author shall then illustrate the difficulty this raises for two influential ideas in the Christian tradition: the heaven and hell understanding of the afterlife, and the idea of the resurrection of the body. Finally, the author shall consider some objections to the problem, and shall highlight which responses are the most plausible.

AB - In this paper, the author argues that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a disorder in which seemingly independent identities (alters) arise within the same individual, can have considerable consequences in Christian theology. The author shall focus on traditional Christian understandings of the afterlife. The author shall begin by outlining DID, and shall argue that in some DID cases, alters appear to be different persons according to some definitions of personhood in Christian theology. The author shall then illustrate the difficulty this raises for two influential ideas in the Christian tradition: the heaven and hell understanding of the afterlife, and the idea of the resurrection of the body. Finally, the author shall consider some objections to the problem, and shall highlight which responses are the most plausible.

KW - Dissociative identity disorder

KW - Personhood

KW - Heaven and hell

KW - Bodily resurrection

U2 - 10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093

DO - 10.14428/thl.v7i1.64093

M3 - Article

SN - 2593-0265

VL - 7

SP - 168

EP - 193

JO - TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology

JF - TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology

IS - 1

ER -

Divided minds and divine judgement: dissociative identity disorder, heaven and hell, and the resurrection of the body

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this