I have mentioned before my personal aversion to the RIP "Rest in Peace" trope; or, more exactly, that I think the wished desire for "peace" is revelatory of the alienated perspective of a modernity of consciousness.
It is striking how much a desire for "peace" is expressed in The Book of Common Prayer (in origin a product of the 1500s modified in the 1600s, mainly).
And - while this old usage of the peace word is much broader than the modern one (and while it may also reflect a rather temporally and culturally specific yearning to end the many generations of bitter intra-Christian religious conflict in England) - I nonetheless regard the oft-repeated yearning for peace to be an early indicator of a shift away from the desire for resurrection into post-mortal Heaven, toward the modern desire for post-mortal annihilation.
Of course, peace is - in context - a Good Thing, and the idea of "resting" in peace is desirable and valuable; yet in a Christian context, peace is not a goal in itself, but essentially a means to an end.
And while the opposites of peace - such as war, conflict, hassle - are mostly undesirable, especially post-mortally; even this may not be wholly true to human nature.
For instance; the broad "Valhalla" idea of a warrior paradise of daily fighting and slaying, followed by a diurnal restoration of health is expressive of a desire for something very different from "peace". And if Paradise includes pleasurable sexual activity, this desire likewise opposes a wish for peace.
Peace is analogous to sleep: where the phase of deep and dreamless sleep is restorative, essential, and culturally undervalued; nonetheless if unconsciousness were to become the core aspiration in mortal life, this aspiration negates any positive reason for mortal life.
If the nature of our life was that we mostly wanted to escape it and rest in peace; then why bother with living at all?
If it is best to be un-conscious, then why develop and mature towards adulthood? Why even be born? We might as well short-circuit to death; and thereby skip the whole messy and often miserable business of being-alive.
For the modern consciousness; the notion of Resting in Peace is a covert suicide wish; in which suicide is assumed to lead to a post-mortal destruction of everything that is our-self.
For the modern mind, peace and death are an escape from life.
By contrast; what Jesus made possible and offered us is More life and a better life...
A post-mortal state in which we remain-ourselves, but immortal, and living-on in a world (Heaven) based-on love between its inhabitants...
A world that is negatively without evil, decay, and death - but therefore positively a world where love and creation are permanent; where memories, relationships and growth are cumulative.
There is surely a place for "peace" in Heaven, but peace is not the point of Heaven. And when peace becomes the major aspiration, we implicitly reject the offer of Jesus and instead aspire either to lose our-self - either by some kind of dissolution back into the divine one-ness; or else in mainstream culture when people reject continued-living and prefer annihilation.
Thanks for this. I have been getting more and more inclined to the view that we will be more alive in the next sequence of lives than in the current one.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did a brief internet search on "rest in peace", and there is a patchy Wikipedia article, and it does trace the phrase to early Christianity, if not earlier, and it was really pushed by the Victorians. The article doesn't mention the Book of Common Prayer or the forming of the Church of England. Also, views on life after death before the ministry of Jesus did envisage it as either annihilation or something similar as waiting for a medical appointment.
@Ed - "more alive" is a good, concise, way of putting it.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned my impression that EIP was mostly a 19th century (i.e. Victorian, and onward) phenomenon in the linked post. Also the similarity with the afterlife envisaged by pre-Christian Hades and Sheol.
As for the BCP; if you were a CofE Anglican you would probably know what I meant - especially wrt the services of morning and evening prayer (Mattins and Evensong). It is not the same thing as RIP, but I think is leading towards it.
For thosw unfamiliar with the BCP, from Morning Prayer:
ReplyDeleteThe second Collect, for Peace.
O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I've always balked at the line "whose service is perfect freedom" but I suppose you rather like that one and can spin it to your cocreation view.
All the “peace be with you” stuff definitely stood between me and any interest in Christianity for a long time. It still isn’t where it’s at for me. It’s patently therapeutic, as is most of the talk about “unity.”
ReplyDeleteThe full Catholic phrase is 'rest in peace, rise in glory.' I think that undermines at least part of your argument.
ReplyDelete@RS - The trouble is that I absolutely love the language of the BCP, which I rate as high as Shakespeare - and anything in the language. So I am inclined to enjoy the words at an aesthetic and sublime level, rather than as theology.
ReplyDelete@PR - I suppose that refers to the theological idea (which I don't share) of a necessary delay between death and resurrection (everybody together on the day of judgment, maybe; or a delay for purgatory perhaps), during which it would be better to be "peaceful" than otherwise.
ReplyDeleteBut I believe we are ideally intended/ supposed-to follow Jesus and choose resurrection into Heaven immediately after death; and therefore with no delay for resting in peace or otherwise.
Although I don't doubt there are provisions for those who cannot decide straightaway in favour of resurrection, who do-not-reject the idea of resurrection-Heaven permanently or finally - but meanwhile choose... something-else - such as a period of peaceful blissful near-oblivion perhaps, or further mortal reincarnation/s?
I go to an LDS church, and the way it was explained to me is that we are "asleep" until the second coming, although it may feel instantaneous to us.
ReplyDeleteI know you don't believe in the second coming and I'm not sure I do either, I've been a Christian since 2019 and I'm still so confused.