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The Afterlife In Albert Brooks Judgment City

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What is the criterion needed to determine an ideal and accurate image of the afterlife? A large number of people believe in heaven and hell, and of those who believe have some sort of image of the afterlife. Whether it involves flaming hell or a paradise called heaven, the images constructed of the afterlife cannot be proven correct or incorrect; however, there needs to be a shared common understanding of what the afterlife entails such as justice, punishment, and reward. For Albert Brooks, his image of the afterlife is reflected in the film, Defending Your Life. In the film, Brooks plays Daniel Miller, a successful executive who crashes into a bus. He awakens in a place called Judgment City, which resembles Los Angeles, California. In this …show more content…

This is similar to Zachary Hayes’ idea of purgatory as a place where a soul is to be purified before going to heaven. Hayes’ main idea about eschatology incorporates anthropological hierarchy and hope which are represented in this film. For Karl Rahner’s viewpoint, Rahner stresses the need to look back to the past in order to make a choice for the future (244). This viewpoint is used in Brooks’ film as the basic storyline. Although Brooks’ vision may have flaws, it does help illustrate some ideas that Karl Rahner and Zachary Hayes agree with and encourage when thinking about …show more content…

According to Zachary Hayes in Visions of a Future: A Study of Christian Eschatology, “The anthropological shift that we have been tracing in eschatology in general, and in the theology of death in particular, becomes clear in the contemporary attempts to re-interpret the basic metaphors of purgation” (113). Essentially, Hayes is saying that purgatory acts as a level in hierarchal system in the afterlife similarly to how Judgement City is a level in Brooks’ film. Hayes would mostly likely view Judgement City as purgatory because Daniel goes through a period of growth by proving to be worthy of moving on to the next level with Julia. As a result, Brooks’ film illustrates purgatory because Daniel went through a period of

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“The Great Divorce” by C. S. Lewis is a fascinating and unique tale that tells of the afterlife, involving the relationship between Heaven and Hell. Because it is a book like no other, it causes readers to contemplate what the afterlife may be like. Therefore, because “The Great Divorce” is so distinctive and stimulating it has the ability to teach life lessons and to strike a nerve with people of all backgrounds. In the book’s preface Lewis mentions that he did not intend for this book to express what he believed about Heaven and Hell, but rather to cause the readers to think about what Heaven and Hell really could be like, as the boundaries given in the Bible are decently sized.

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The encounter with each soul shows Dante the pain and torture they face, and Dante feels sympathy when he sees how miserable they are, but then feels pity once he realizes that their punishments are just direct consequences for their sins. This shows the significance of one’s conscious decisions, because the decisions one made essentially determines their eternity. In contrast, however, The Scrovegni Chapel includes many scenes of life leading up to Judgement Day, and shows the ideal life that one should live, so that once it is time for their judgment, they will be deemed worthy for Heaven by Jesus Christ, and not have to suffer an eternity of torture and consequences for their sins in

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