5th
It was Nietzsche who most passionately and insightfully attacked a Christianity that founded its notion of truth on the absolute affirmation of an eternal, static, changeless heavenly realm. Indeed, Nietzsche felt that it was such an affirmation of world without end that was nothing less than a form of nihilism, for the belief in eternal life robbed this life of its fragile, fleeting beauty.
My point here is not to argue for or against the existence of a heavenly eternity, but rather to help draw us away from the idea that such a belief relates to what Christianity offers as its transformative truth. Indeed, if one does believe in a literal heaven, it may even be important to suspend this belief in order to approach the truly good news of Christianity. For the original disciples the introduction of an afterlife arose only after they had already given up everything and followed Jesus—in short, after the good news had already been received.
