The Phenomenology of Immortality (1200–1400)
July 6, 2018 C. Dyke 2 citations
Medieval thinkers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries held diverse expectations about the phenomenology of immortality—what everlasting life would feel like. Scholastic philosophers speculated theoretically about bodily resurrection, perfect happiness, and afterlife details such as hair length and apparent age. In contrast, mystical and contemplative authors like Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete described final union with God as a transcendent merging that erases multiplicity, while figures like Hadewijch of Brabant and Angela of Foligno portrayed it as an intimate experience preserving a distinct sense of self. These differing views reveal deeper philosophical commitments about God, embodiment, happiness, and love, and what it means to be human.