In many religions there is some general idea of life after death or an afterlife. Although there is a basic concept of life after death the interpretation made by many religions can vary. The point of this paper is to explain, compare, and contrast the different ideas and beliefs of life after death in Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism.
In Christianity there is one over-arching idea of life after death which is Heaven and Hell. Most major branches of Christianity believe in some form of Heaven. Heaven in a Christian view point is a place of love and joy. Taken directly from the Bible Heaven is a place where “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4) The bible made the journey to Heaven very clear and states that Christians must acknowledge that “Jesus is the son of God. That he died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) Christians must also acknowledge that they will not get into Heaven solely for their good works, but instead by grace and faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) One of the major things Christians must do in order to spend eternity in Heaven is they must “have properly repented their sins to God” (The Christian Afterlife). Christians must ask for forgiveness and repent their sins in order to fully let God’s love overtake them. If they do not do this, they may end up in Hell, or in some branches of Christianity, a place called Purgatory. Purgatory is found in the Roman Catholic or Orthodox church belief system. Purgatory is a transitional state between Heaven and Hell. It is a place where those who have sinned wander and until they are purified and are sent to Heaven to spend eternity with God. (Views on Heaven and Hell) The time spent in Purgatory varies from sinner to sinner and it depends on how big the sins were. The time spent in Purgatory can however, be shortened by the prayers of those still on earth. (Views on Heaven and Hell) This idea of Purgatory was never officially stated in the Bible, but it has been around since the early centuries of the Christian Church (Views on Heaven and Hell) As for the idea of Hell, many major branches of Christianity believe in it; however, not all of them. Hell is a place for sinners who did not repent and hell is an eternal destiny for these people. (Christianity on the Afterlife) Hell is interpreted as a place of fire and misery. Overall the Christian view of life after death is probably the most commonly known. The end goal is to spend eternity in Heaven with God and this goal is easily obtainable through forgiveness, judgment, and repentance.
In Hinduism they have a similar form of an afterlife, but the journey to get there is much more developed. Hindus have a death and re-birth cycle throughout the eternity of their life until they reach Moksha, which is eternity with the Brahman or God. During this cycle of death and re-birth your actions define your karma and your karma defines what you are reincarnated as in your next life or if you reach Moksha. There are ways to create good karma like yoga. Some of these yoga practices that help build good karma are knowledge, helping those in need, worshiping idols, meditation focused on objects or scriptures, and normal exercise yoga. Other ways to obtain good karma is to practice asceticism or detachment from material things and forms of indulgence. By doing this you are fulfilling your spiritual duty, which is also very important to building good karma. Once you have successfully reached a bad karma of zero percent you reach Moksha which is the end of the death and re-birth cycle. (Vijay Kumar) Once you reach Moksha there are a couple different ideas of what happens next. One of these ideas is that the Atman (soul) is absorbed into the Brahman; this is because of the belief that the Atman and Brahman are one in the same. Another belief is that after Moksha the Atman and Brahman are different and live separately. This idea represents that the Atman lives as a unique individual in the presence of Brahman. (Life After Death, 5) The Hindu view of life after death is relatively easy to grasp, but the steps to get there are more complex than other religions.
In Judaism the idea of life after death is not well developed. The discussion of an afterlife in the Torah is limited and it only speaks of death in the perspective of someone who is still alive. In Judaism they mainly focus on earthly life and fulfilling Gods duties. Although there is no official stance on life after death in Judaism, some believe in a Heaven like fate called Gan Eden which is derived from the Garden of Eden. Gan Eden is a place for the righteous and is filled with joy and peace. (The Afterlife in Judaism) There is also a version of Hell in Judaism which is called Genion, in this version of hell they spend no more than twelve months being purified and after the twelve months you are considered purified and righteous and are sent to Gan Eden for eternity. (The Afterlife in Judaism) This concept of Gan Eden (Heaven) and Genion (Hell) is not widely accepted nor denied. To put the Jewish view of an afterlife into words would be to say “we do not really know if there is one [life after death] and a reward is dependent on the kind of life that is lived.” (Rabbi Howard Jaffe) This is the main teaching in Judaism; there will be either a reward or punishment after death and no one is really sure what it is going to be.
All together these ideas of a life after death correlate pretty well. The most similar being the Christian and Jewish view point on a life after death. Although, there is no real stance on life after death in Judaism the general idea of Heaven and Hell that is found when researched is quite similar to the idea of Heaven and hell in Christianity. The idea of Hell differs between all three religions. Hell in Christianity is eternal suffering because there was no repentance of sin, but the idea of Hell in Judaism is more similar to Christianity’s Purgatory. The Jewish version of Hell is Similar to Purgatory because it is not eternal unlike the Christian view of Hell. Hell in Judaism is a place to be purified so you can spend eternity with God, just like you must be purified in Purgatory in order to spend eternity with God. Purgatory does not have a twelve month time limit like Jewish Hell does and that is the biggest difference between Genion and Purgatory. Hinduism does not have any defined view on hell because it believes in the idea of reincarnation. Hinduism believes in multiple lifetimes where as Christianity and Judaism only believe in one. The death and re-birth cycle of Hinduism would be most similar to purgatory or Genion. In the death and re-birth cycle you are living out your past karma and attempting to make it better in order to reach moksha. So although, Hinduism does not have any version of hell the death and re-birth cycle is similar to the idea of hell. The biggest similarity between all three of these religions would be the fact that once salvation is reached you spend eternity with God. The idea of Christian Heaven, Jewish Heaven, and Moksha are all quite similar because it discusses the idea of spending eternity in the presence of God after purification.
I myself am not a very religious person and quite honestly I believe that when you pass you do not pass onto another life, but instead you are just dead. I do not believe in an afterlife, but if I had to pick which one of these seemed the most logical it would be the Jewish belief on life after death. I say this because they do not focus on life after death as much as they do on earthly life. All together their teachings come down to “you will be punished or rewarded after death based on your actions during your life.” although, I do not believe in an after life I believe this to to be the most logical because I can not bring myself to believe that your soul will spend eternity somewhere just because of your actions when you were living. Whether the punishment or reward is eternity in Hell or Heaven is open to interpretation. All together none of these versions of life after death really speak to me and I solely believe that is because of the fact that I believe that when you die you are just simply dead and there is no other life to pass on to.
Regardless of the many paths it may take to get to eternal salvation or life after death in these religions the end goal is quite similar. All together these religions have developed different aspects of their afterlife, but when it comes down to the main points they all fall together in similarity. Surprisingly they did not contrast as much as one may of thought. Overall these religions are all quite different but seem to fall of the same page when it comes to life after death.