| dc.description.abstract | “Dynamic” views of heaven are currently popular, in which the blessed spend
eternity progressing and developing, as opposed to “static” views, in which they do
not. This is, in part, because dynamic views supposedly offer a plausible solution to
the “Boredom Problem”, i.e. the claim that, given an infinite amount of time,
existence would necessarily become so tedious as to be unbearable. I argue that
static views actually deal with this problem more successfully than dynamic views
do. I argue that the Boredom Problem itself rests on the assumption that, without
activity to keep us interested, we slip into boredom by default. I examine the
phenomenon of boredom itself to evaluate that assumption, and argue that it is
false. It follows that a person in a state of “serenity” – who desires only to continue
as they are – cannot become bored. I relate this to the Christian tradition of
conceiving of heaven in terms of rest and inactivity, argue that it is consistent with
the claim that the blessed in heaven are embodied, communal, and virtuous (in
some sense), and conclude that boredom poses no more problem to this conception
of heaven than exhaustion does to the dynamic conception. | en_GB |
