He descended into Hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into Heaven.
In unequivocal terms, the traditional Apostles' Creed sums up one of the central mysteries of Christianity: God's promise of eternal paradise or perdition beyond the grave. Millions of Christians recite the Creed as an affirmation of their faith. Yet many theologians are now attempting to redefine heaven and hell in this-worldly terms—not as places where humans somehow survive after death, but as states of mind and modes of being that begin here on earth. As they see it, the world itself is the supreme opportunity for man's fulfillment and salvation, and the afterlife a "spiritual dimension" that emphasizes the noblest traits and aspirations of this life.
Most Christian theologians readily agree that eschatology—the doctrine of death and the afterlife—owes more to superstition than to supernatural wisdom. "The traditional views of heaven and hell are about 95% mythology," says Notre Dame's Jesuit Biblical Scholar John McKenzie. Except among some fundamentalists, the concept of a three-tier universe with heaven above, hell below and mankind in the middle struggling for divine judgment is recognized as a complete distortion of God's cryptic revelation on eternity.
Consumer Satisfaction. Though the concept of an afterlife is universal among religions. Scriptural scholars note that the Bible has relatively little to say about it. The Old Testament contains no explicit description of heaven; the closest that ancient Biblical seers got to the idea of hell was sheol—a vague limbo after death. Although much of Judaism accepts the notion of an afterlife. Jews have never unduly concerned themselves with it. According to Reform Rabbi Richard Lehrman of Atlanta, "you make it or break it right here."
The books of the New Testament are considerably more vivid in their portrayal of the hereafter. In Revelation, heaven is described as a city of "pure gold" whose walls are "adorned with every jewel," and hell is called "the lake that burns with fire and brimstone"; in hell, according to Matthew, sinners "will weep and gnash their teeth." Though scholars regard such descriptions as being primarily imagery, Christianity at one time accepted them as literally true. In the Middle Ages, Dante confidently limned a topography of the beyond that seemed as convincingly detailed as a map of Italy.
To eras in which life was a cruel trial of disease and despair, there was deep comfort in the dream of heaven as God's good-conduct reward. Now that man has more and more conquered nature, eternity has become more and more distant. "A certain satisfaction with this world has replaced the aspiration for heaven," says Italy's Roman Catholic Philosopher Ettore Albino. "A consumer society gives man happiness even if it is superficial. Nobody wants to hear of hell."