Degrees of Glory: A Brief History of Heaven and Graded Salvation

by Jim Hansen

Overview

Abstract: While references to heaven in the Old Testament are sparse, non-explicit, and predominantly cosmological, the New Testament reveals a more complex concept of the afterlife that reflects a rapidly evolving understanding of Heaven. The Jewish apocalyptic literature of the late Second Temple period describes a heaven of multiple degrees that is populated with angels and the righteous dead of varying glories. Those glories also tangibly reflect astral qualities of light and glory comparable to the sun, moon, and stars. Within this worldview of Heaven, several of the Apostle Paul's writings to Corinth can be read with added insight, including his ascent to the "third heaven." Paul's teachings of resurrected bodies assuming astral qualities may reflect the native Corinthians' metaphysical views of the body and soul, which Paul may have shared himself. While Western Christianity would embrace degrees of glory through the Middle Ages, Reform Theology of the Protestant Reformation would affirm a concept of Heaven that supported only a single habitation. It would take a Restoration-era vision to Joseph Smith to restore the doctrine of degrees of glory original to the Jews and early Christians but lost to those of the modern era.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940185707579
Publisher:	Interpreter Foundation
Publication date:	11/03/2023
Series:	Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship , #53
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	355 KB

About the Author

Jim Hansen is a Registered Nurse by profession. He holds AS and BA degrees from Brigham Young University, an MSN from the University of Wyoming, and is a Doctoral candidate in the Turner School of Theology at Amridge University. His professional writings include primary authorship of the internationally recognized The Nurse Residency Program Builder and contributing authorship to four other nursing texts. He has also published 11 articles in peer-reviewed nursing journals and Interpreter. He served a full-time mission from 1989–1991 and has served in numerous ward and stake capacities, but his favorites have been those of Seminary teacher and bishop. He and his wife, Teri, are the proud parents of two sons and eagerly look forward to grandchildren in the near future.