HEAVITREE 



by a due fulfilment of the religious 

 rites and customs of the tribe. A 

 striking illustration of the belief 

 that the future life is a continuation 

 of the present is the common 

 custom of burying implements and 

 weapons with the corpse. 



Among the national religions the 

 Egyptian laid great stress upon 

 the life beyond the grave. An 

 ethical development may be ob- 

 served in the conditions required 

 for admission to the abode of the 

 blessed. Moral purity is regarded 

 as essential in the higher forms of 

 Egyptian religion. The Greek and 

 Roman religion did not develop 

 the idea of a happy life beyond the 

 grave to anything like the same 

 extent. The' thought is not, how- 

 ever, entirely absent, and it played 

 a considerable part in the so-called 

 ' mystery religions." The prevail- 

 ing view is nevertheless that the life 

 beyond the grave is merely a feeble 

 and shadowy copy of the present 

 world. Only certain heroes speci- 

 ally favoured by the gods are 

 supposed to enjoy happiness in an 

 earthly Elysium. Philosophica 

 ideas of immortality were developed 

 by Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, 

 and other thinkers. 



Eastern Conceptions 



The religions of the East have 

 made the idea more prominent, 

 and both Hinduism and Buddhism 

 have evolved complex doctrines of 

 the hereafter. According to the 

 Buddhist theology the state of 

 final blessedness consists in Nir- 

 vana, which involves the loss of in- 

 dividual existence. Thus the com- 

 plete attainment of salvation 

 would raise the soul above heaven. 

 Pious people who have not yet 

 attained this final blessedness are 

 rewarded by re-birth in one of the 

 numerous heavens. The highest 

 heaven is a condition in which 

 desire and pleasure have no place. 



Mahomedanism offers a very 

 different conception of heaven. 

 The Koran teaches the resurrection 

 of the body and represents the 

 beatitude of the faithful as con- 

 sisting of enjoyments of a sensual 

 character. The crudity of this 

 view has, however, been modified 

 by the more mystical schools of 

 Mahomedan thought. 



In the O.T. the word heaven is 

 used to signify the sky, which is 

 regarded as the roof of the world 

 and also as the dwelling-place of 

 God. The idea of a reward for the 

 righteous after death is not promi- 

 nent in Hebrew religion, and is 

 only found in the later books. The 

 prevailing belief was that the 

 divine Providence metes out re- 

 wards and punishments in this life. 

 Some of the most interesting pas- 

 sages in Hebrew literature are pro- 



39O5 



tests against this view, cf. the book 

 of Job. In later Jewish literature, 

 and particularly in the so-called 

 Apocalyptic writings, the idea of 

 a resurrection and a future life 

 becomes very prominent, though it 

 assumes somewhat fantastic forms. 

 The New Testament and Heaven 



In the N.T. heaven is, as in the 

 O.T., the dwelling-place of God, 

 as we are reminded by the opening 

 words of the Lord's Prayer. It is 

 also represented by the writers of 

 the Epistles and the Revelation as 

 the abode of the ascended Christ. 

 Heaven is also the final home of the 

 righteous. This is a part of the 

 teaching of Jesus and of the apos- 

 tolic writers. Several passages sug- 

 gest that there is more than one 

 heaven. It is possible that this is 

 implied in Christ's saying about 

 " many mansions." S. Paul speaks 

 of being caught up into the third 

 heaven (2 Cor. xii, 2). In the 

 Epistle to the Hebrews Christ is 

 said to have " passed through the 

 heavens " (Heb. iv, 14). 



No definite statements are to be 

 found in the N.T. on the nature of 

 heaven and the life of the righteous 

 in the world to come beyond the 

 assertion of general principles. The 

 language of the Revelation of S. 

 John must not be interpreted as a 

 literal description of heaven. The 

 Christian conception of heaven is 

 social. It is described as a kingdom 

 and involves intercourse. It is, 

 however, not a decrease of life, but 

 an increase, since the state of the 

 blessed is called " eternal life." 



The joy of heaven, in the Chris- 

 tian view, is spiritual and not 

 material. Jesus was careful to 

 point out that the relations which 

 are based on bodily functions are 

 not carried over as such into the 

 heavenly kingdom. It consists in 

 the unimpeded exercise of moral 

 and spiritual activities. Thus the 

 desire for truth and understanding 

 cannot, in the nature of things, be 

 fully satisfied in the present order, 

 and the life of heaven is conceived 

 as one of fuller knowledge as con- 

 trasted with knowledge " in part." 

 Another element in the joy of 

 heaven is the fuller development of 

 fellowship with others and of the 

 possibilities of love. For Christian- 

 ity, however, the supreme good 

 and the final reward is perfect 

 communion with God, or the Beati- 

 fic Vision. Thus the life of heaven 

 is to be thought of as the complete 

 attainment of an eternal life which 

 can be possessed partially in the 

 present life. 



Several philosophical problems 

 have been raised in connexion with 

 the idea of heaven. Such is the 

 question whether heaven can be 

 described as a " place." There are 



HEBDEN BRIDGE 



obvious difficulties in supposing 

 that heaven occupies a portion of 

 space, and a common answer is 

 that " Heaven is not a place but 

 a state." This solution is not en- 

 tirely satisfactory, because it is not 

 easy to see how individual exist- 

 ence can be preserved if the future 

 life is not accompanied by con- 

 ditions analogous to those of space. 

 The scientific and philosophical 

 conceptions of space are now the 

 subject of much discussion, and it 

 is possible that new light may be 

 thrown upon the future life. 



W. R. Matthews 



Bibliography. Christian Doctrine 

 of Immortality, S. D. F. Salmond, 

 1901 ; Human Personality and its 

 Survival of Bodily Death, F. W. H. 

 Myers, 1903 ; Immortality, ed. B. 

 H. Streeter, 1917 ; King's College 

 Lectures on Immortality, ed. W. R. 

 Matthews, 1920. 



Heavitree. Parish and village 

 of Devonshire; Ensland. It is 1 m. 

 E. of Exeter, and "the Exeter City 

 asylum is here. Pop. 10.950. 



Hebbel, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH 

 (1813-63). German dramatist and 

 poet. He was born at Wesselburen, 

 Sles vig-Hol- 

 stein, March 18 ; 

 1813, the son 

 of a mason. He 

 was enabled to 

 study at Ham- 

 burg, Heidel- 

 berg, and 

 Munich, and in 

 1842 his first 

 tragedy, Ju- 

 dith, brought 

 him immediate 

 fame. It was followed by Maria 

 Magdalena, 1844, the best of his 

 earlier plays, and a forerunner of 

 the naturalistic drama. 



His later plays included Herodes 

 und Mariamne, 1851 ; Gyges und 

 sein Ring, 1855 ; and the trilogy, 

 Die Nibelungen, 1862, the two 

 last named being his masterpieces. 

 He also published two volumes of 

 Gedichte (poems), in 1842 and 

 1848. He died in Vienna, Dec. 13, 

 1863. His Tagebucher (Diaries) 

 were published in 1887. See Life 

 and Works, T. M. Campbell, 1919. 



Hebburn. Urban dist. and town 

 of Durham, England. It stands on 

 the Tyne, and is virtually a suburb 

 of Jarrow. Shipbuilding, engineer- 

 ing, and chemical, rope, and sail 

 manufactures are the chief indus- 

 tries. The council maintains a 

 public park. Pop. 21,770. 



Hebden Bridge. Urban dist. 

 and town of W.R., Yorkshire, 

 England. It stands on the Hebden 

 and Calder rivers, 8 m. W.N.W. of 

 Halifax, on the L. & Y.R. The 

 Hardcastle Crags, a favourite resort, 

 are 3 m. to the N.W. The manu- 

 factures consist of cotton, silk, and 



X 5 



C. F. Hebbel, 

 German dramatist 



