The Fear Of Death And Christian Hope Of Eternal Life From The Yoruba Perspective
Date
2003
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
One reality of human life that has raised up question about the meaning life is death.
While many people see it as a threat to humanity, some people do not know what to say or
think about it, and others think that talking about it could help accept the fact that death is part
of human reality. I lowever, the question that many people would like to know, which perhaps
would have made the reality of death acceptable, is about the nature of life after death. Thus,
the inability to explain what life would probably be after death is the cause of the fear of
death. Therefore, in order not to be disturbed by the fear of death, many people tend to
suppress or deny the fact that death is part of human reality. Hence, life is viewed from a
materialistic or biological point of view; we live so far as the organs in the body are
functioning. This way of thinking reduced the value of human life to a mere object. To reject
a reality just because it cannot be subjected to reasoning does not mean affirming the nonexistence
of that reality. Experience and reason as we know are not the only form of human
knowledge. There are other forms such as intuition and faith.
The fear we have of death is not about the fact of death in itself (since we all know
that we are not immortal beings) but on the importance of life. Human beings, as the only
creature with cognition to know and value life, ask the question, why death? What is the
meaning of life with all the aspirations and hopes of man dying with him? With these
questions, human beings have no answer to death. Death is a mystery, though denied by
human experience, is affirmed by Christian teaching and faith. According to the Holy Scriptures and in particular the New Testament, the meaning of
death is revealed to us as the means that God used to fulfill his promise of redemption and
salvation. Thus, what was an enemy of the human race has now become a grace through the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, death has become a path of hope into a new
life for all those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The hope of eternal
life is Jesus Christ himself who is "The way, the truth and life" (Jn. 14:6)
The subject of death is very vast and deals different topics such as heaven, hell,
purgatory, the new heaven and the whole concept of eschatology. All these topics are related
to the idea of the place for the dead after death.
My intension is not to state the condition of life after death but to see why we fear
death and whether the Christian hope of eternal life (which deals with the condition of life
after death) can help us to overcome our fear. I consequently chose to write this paper from an
African context and in particular from a Yoruba cultural perspective because of my believe
that the Christians among the Yoruba people need to have a proper understanding and
integration of the Christian faith so that the virtues of Christian life become a transforming
factor in their daily living.
This is how I intend to proceed in this paper. I am going to develop the first chapter on
the general understanding of death and the Christian approach to the concept of death. In the
second chapter, I will focus on the Yoruba understanding of death and afterlife from the
perspective of the culture and tradition. Thus, in order to establish that the idea of eternal life
provides us the hope to overcome our fear of death, I will focus the third chapter on how the
Christian hope of eternal life provides us the basis on which we can overcome the fear of
death and accept it as part of human reality. What I want to achieve with this paper is to see how the Christians among the Yoruba
people confront the reality of death with the Yoruba cultural background they possessed with
the Christian faith. My conclusion, therefore, is a synthesis of how the Yoruba understanding
of death finds its completeness in the Christian teaching, which reveals the divine plan of God
to us. Hence, since the Yoruba culture is within the divine plan of God, the Christian
teaching, doctrine, dogma or expression of faith provide us better understanding of what
God's plan is for us in life and death, which consequently leads us to hope that the end of life
is not in death but in the beatific vision of God.
Description
Keywords
Fear Of Death, Christian Hope, Eternal Life, Yoruba Perspective, Suicide, Death, Evil and Sin