Reclaiming Heaven from History: A Theological Critique of Martin Hägglund's This Life

Abstract

Martin Hägglund's This Life offers an incisive critique of Christian visions of eternal life. Theological responses to Hägglund emphasize the ‘worldly’ nature of heaven over-against overly Platonic, ‘otherworldly’ accounts of everlasting life. In contrast, I suggest Hägglund's critique fails to grapple with theocentric forms of creaturely consummation qualitatively distinct from mundane life. I critique Hägglund's ‘suspicious’ reading of Augustine and CS Lewis, and, in dialogue with Michael Rosen, suggest his account of what makes finite life meaningful participates in an early modern movement from heaven to ‘historical immortality’. Hägglund thinks heaven is not desirable, yet when interpreted in the foregoing terms, this is the precise objection I direct at his account of ‘historical immortality’.