“I don’t want to go, unless heaven’s got a dirt road.”
— Kip Moore
For whatever reason, the topic of the afterlife has not been a common topic among students of Karl Barth.
After all, we have so many other matters which direct our attention, usually pertaining to trinitarian metaphysics, divine election, incarnation and atonement, incarnation and ecclesiology, and the perennial “knowledge of God” questions. And if you want to establish yourself in the Barthian guild, you better attend to these matters! But I am grateful that Wyatt Houtz has addressed the doctrine of the afterlife in Barth’s theology: “Karl Barth’s Argument Against Afterlife.”
I do not agree with Wyatt, and you can read my brief comments in the combox for further indications of why. I am not in the least convinced that Barth believes in such a depressing afterlife, where the temporal is absorbed and annihilated into the divine — where the individual consciousness is decisively negated. This is the very worst of Gnostic speculation, and it makes the eternal-finite dialectic the end-game of Barth’s dogmatics. If this is true, then Barth is a truly terrible theologian, scarcely worth our time and energy.
In contrast to one of Wyatt’s reflections, I am perfectly happy with a “pagan” image of heaven as a “Valhalla” where beer is on demand and abundant. At the very least, I hope that heaven is nothing less! By way of illustration, let me offer you the country-rock song, “Dirt Road,” by Kip Moore:
When a preacher talks of heaven, he paints it real nice / He says, you better get to livin’, better get to livin’ right / If you’re gonna get your mansion / he’s been saving for your soul / If you’re gonna do your dancing / on city streets of gold
But unless it’s got a dirt road / leading down to a fishing hole …
As is often the case, country music does theology better than students of theology. The existential heaven of a temporal “hope” is worthless [I sanitized my previous language!], and it is long overdue for us to call a spade a spade. Perhaps, dare I say, we should “absolutize” our temporal experience, as in the Rolling Stone interpretation of this song: “he didn’t want to enter the Pearly Gates if the afterlife wasn’t akin to his beloved South,” also in reference to Hank Williams Jr. Of course, we do not need to do this in an overly literal sense, though I am rather tempted to do so!
My point is simple, and it requires a “new creation” that is at least as good as the old creation. I am very doubtful that liberal Protestants are up to the challenge, as in Christopher Morse’s The Difference Heaven Makes, which does a fine enough job of making the Kingdom present and with moral imperatives. But it does little more.
The resurrection of the body — even a “spiritual body” — is surely good enough for a dirt road, fishing poles, and beers with a pretty girl.
dogmatics.wordpress.com 
Amen amen!
Though, I have to say, that taken at face-value, a song like Dirt Road creates the “Barth” and liberal Protestant revolt. Collapsing the eternal into fixed finite values only will instigate an existential crisis of boredom. I remember one day I was, for a very brief moment, deathly afraid that eternity was going to be a Chris Tomlin worship concert.
Because it says we’ll be “worshiping” eternally right? After 5 min after that I’d become like Milton’s Satan, “it is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven!! Give me Ozzy!!”
But I jest.
We need not only a New Creation better than the Old one, but one which has realized its longing beyond itself. As I put out on Fr. Kimmel’s blog, Gregory of Nyssa gives (at least conceptually) the tools to keep us from ending up in static hell. The ever-moving towards an infinite God, who, being Love and infinite, is not restrained in meeting us in the distance, keeps being glorified in God in its dynamic force.
In simpler words, I imagine the Great Feast with better and better courses with better and better wines. It only gets better and we only become more satisfied.
We are not Muslims seeking a Paradise divorced from the face of God, hoping to see, off in the far distance, such glory. We are not seeking to be alone to seek the Alone.
cal
Ha, yes, but it is surely our selfish limitations that make “fixed finite values” a matter of “boredom.” That is my interpretation of Gen 3! To be a saint is to be joyful with the finite! (Because the finite is “given” — it is grace.)
From St. John of the Cross to Johnny Cash, this is true for all of the church triumphant!
First, let me say that I am not arguing that our finitude is the cause of our depravity and our sin. I am not making the existential(?) argument. Creation was/is/will be good.
What I’m saying is that dynamism and flux is apart of, not contrary to, peace and stability. So an ever increasing glory is an ever increasing participation in God renewing the Creation. Finite is never infinite, but drawn towards the Infinite (namely God in Jesus Christ). This is not novelty but a moving upwards.
In other words, this means living a life of continually better wine. If Jesus is hosting our party forever, we will constantly be undone like the MC in John 2. I look forward to such great drink.
Addendum: I actually listened to the music. Now I enjoy the outlaw country and I even had a stint where I listened to pop country (I am ashamed to admit that I listened to Toby Keith and Trace Adkins). But with the fast-music pace, the electric guitars, and the light psuedo-grunts, how this can even be considered “country” anymore? I know all of these categories are just silly, and many times fruitless, attempts to fix music. But this sounds like the confluence of pop-rock, pop-dance, and pop-country music that has been happening over the past 10 or so years.
In otherwords, is Taylor Swift the Anti-(music)Christ?
Good thoughts, Cal. I like your point about “dynamism and flux.” That’s a fruitful approach. As for Kip Moore, I have a soft spot for his Mellencamp-style country rock. The grit and determination in his voice is great. So, no, it’s not strictly country, but there is no other format for this type of rock — since the mainstream rock format has basically collapsed. Of course, the outlaw period (roughly 1967-77) is the greatest era in country history, followed by the traditionalist movement of the mid to late 80’s, which spilled into the 90’s at its best moments. But, still, I would keep an open mind about some of the more experimental genre-shifting stuff coming out of Nashville. Most of it is terrible, but Kip’s latest album is great, as is Eric Church’s latest — even though both have released some mediocre material in the past.
I love this Opry performance of “Dirt Road”:
Hell yes Kevin! “The existential heaven of a temporal “hope” is bullshit, and it is long overdue for us to call a spade a spade.” A theologian of the cross calls a thing what it is. And I hotly anticipate the renewal of my creatureliness such that I will enjoy finite values apart from the self-exaltation of boredom, able at last to channel worship through created things without the degradation of idolatry. I don’t think that’s a collapsing of the eternal into the temporal so much as the renewal of their proper coordination.
And yes, TS has the spirit of musical Antichrist (though there are many Antichrists among us)- when’s the last time you listened to “Style”? Two weeks ago it came on the radio and it was like the heavens tore in twain and that song was apocalyptically unveiled for what it truly is, a chilling crystallization of apathetic doom. It freaked me out X 10^23.
“…able at last to channel worship through created things without the degradation of idolatry.” Well said, Ian. I like to say that I’m a theologian of the cross and a theologian of glory. 😉
As for TS, I’m just happy that she moved away from Nashville and dropped the country medium entirely. That’s far more honest than, for example, Sam Hunt on country radio. If you want to witness the apocalypse, go watch his video for “House Party.”
The hell-? I guess if Taylor Swift is the Antichrist maybe Sam Hunt is the golden calf- “Behold your country, Nashville!”
Hunt has done more to destroy the country format than any other artist. If you haven’t checked-out the Saving Country Music blog, then you must. Trigger is brilliant in his scathing reviews of Hunt, Thomas Rhett, and the other villains in Nashville.
Though, FYI, I still have a deep love for TS, even if she’s singing thinly veiled lyrics to Calvin Harris.
Ha, I actually admit to sorta liking her first couple of singles, especially “Tim McGraw,” when she was writing simple teenage girl reflections — not that I can easily relate, but I thought it was good for other young girls to hear. Even the sappy “Love Story” is refreshingly sincere.
True that, “Bad Blood” is dope
I never cared much for Taylor Swift and could barely name a handful of her songs, but with how homogenized pop music is now it was nice to have one star who was notably different than all the other ones.
When I learned “We are never ever getting back together” was by Swift, I was kind of sad because it meant she was becoming exactly like all the other interchangeable pop divas.
Yep, though she is still noticeably different than, say, Nikki Minaj, Iggy Az???, Miley Cyrus, and nearly every other woman in pop doing their best to degrade women through a perverse form of “empowerment” (=sexual self-exploitation).
Side note, Kevin, I find it such a shame anything you post on Pope Francis will almost instantaneously accumulate 40+ comments but your reflections on country music are more frequently left uninhabited. It ain’t right!
Ha, ha, good observation, Ian! I still press on with the country stuff. I hate elitism, especially among theology students, so that is at least one of my motivations.
Enjoy your blog.
My idea of heaven is to see God face to face.
I would not want to dismiss the classic expressions for heaven, such as “seeing God face to face.” Those are indeed the most important expressions we have. I am, however, wary about how this can be reduced to an overly spiritualized conception of heaven, as if the bodily resurrection never happened.
Kevin,
Your post reminded me of Mark Twain’s essay in “Letters From The Earth” where the Satan ridicules Protestant America’s view of heaven. It’s going to be just like their dreadfully boring Sunday church worship service, only instead of being mercifully just one hour a week, in heaven it will be the eternal torture of round the clock church. And they leave out all the fun stuff, according to Satan. Mark Twain said this book couldn’t be published until after his death.
So yes, this argument has been around for a while. Some Christians at least are doing a better job on presenting this issue. I’ve personally heard some good sermons on this, and I look forward to the Sunday worship service I attend here in Houston.
I have not read that essay from Twain. It definitely sounds like something he would write. Thankfully, I do think that there is a shift on this topic of heaven, with Randy Alcorn and N. T. Wright doing a lot to cause evangelicals to rethink their view of heaven / new creation. And I hope that this can then influence how we think about worship, as a participation with the church triumphant — a longstanding motif in Catholic liturgical thought.
Will there be more threads like this one?
Perhaps at least a corner of heaven could be like The Church of St John Coltrane on a feast day? Old jazzers improvising on Love Supreme in church, then a mid-afternoon banquet that tastes like San Francisco shared with rough sleepers from under bridges and smooth talkers from Silicon Valley and everyone in between.
http://www.coltranechurch.org/#!about/csgz
Trying to visualize another corner of heaven with St Johnny Cash…
Ha, yeah, I had heard about the Coltrane church. If only Protestants had a canonization process, we could recognize St. Johnny Cash. Perhaps one day Rome will allow Protestants into their canon of saints. That’s not impossible, building off of Vatican 2.
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