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

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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

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

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