Saturday 7 January 2017

Fictional Hereafters

What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson purports to present an accurate account of what the hereafter is really like whereas The Great Divorce and The Last Battle by CS Lewis are imaginative narratives that address spiritual and moral issues but do not describe the real hereafter. In which category is Jerusalem, Book Two, "Mansoul," by Alan Moore? How much is imaginative fiction and how much is what the author believes?

A Catholic priest merely repeats what he has been taught about Heaven, Hell and Purgatory whereas a Spiritualist medium claims direct contact with the hereafter. Direct contact would be important if real but we have no agreed criteria for assessing such claims. Mediumistic communications are in no way as verifiable as trans-Atlantic telephone calls.

I am not sure on which level to read "Mansoul."

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