Keywords
degrees of glory, Mormon studies, graded salvation, heaven, hell
Abstract
While references to heaven in the Old Testament are sparse, nonexplicit, 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.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, Jim
(2023)
"Degrees of Glory: A Brief History of Heaven and Graded Salvation,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 59, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol59/iss1/7
