Sleeping In the Dust

Mortalism is the belief that human beings are in no way naturally immortal, and that at death they are unconscious rather than continuing to exist consciously as an 'immortal soul'. Historically, belief in conditional immortality (either as 'soul sleep' or 'soul death'), has been a significant minority view in Christianity. This work traces the history of Christian mortalism, and notes that the doctrines of the immortal soul and hell are continuing to lose support among modern academics and professional theologians. The majority of standard scholarly sources today describe the state of the dead in terms identical or very close to the mortalist understanding.