DEATH is the foundation of Theology. Not LIFE.

[Penelope]

LIFE is secular. (LIFE is also sacred. To be cherished.)
All of human (and Humanist) Philosophy is an attempt to define and explain LIFE, and how it should be lived.

More life.
Ethical life.

The scientific. The sociopolitical. The esthetic.
Each are ...
About LIFE. (The glories of LIFE. How you survive, and thrive, as a species on this Planet. Your attitudes and your conduct. Living the Good Life.)
Are ...
Deep Philosophy. (But not what Theology is about.)

& & &

DEATH is the foundation-pursuit of Theology ...
To my way of thinking.

The Institutions of Religion may focus upon the life of the Religious individual and the Religious community.
But at its uncanny (Theological) core, Religion is about DEATH. Your DEATH.

(Perhaps the 'Afterlife,' if such can be said to exist.

Perhaps the traumatic events during life which push your typical experiences and routine behaviors away from "Life" and up to the brink of DEATH ...
Or inner playacting which push you toward some type of simulation-trauma, toward a simulation-rehearsal for DEATH.

Some kind of like-DEATH technique, reaching ...
Beyond anything you know. Beyond anything philosophy can ever teach you.
Pushing you into what might be called ... a "spike state."
Invoking ...
The nearness of DEATH.)

DEATH is about the Divine.
But Death is also about the Profane.
(DEATH - and Theology - are about any experience or any behavior which is not mundane. Which forgoes all mundane proprieties.
Beyond anything which can claim a clear Earth-bound, material cause.)

& & &

... To my way of thinking ...
This is - or should be - the root/the anchor of Theology ...

DEATH.

 

[wil]

Sort of like health care focuses on sickness?

 

[bananabrain]

are you trying to make some sort of POINT about RELIGION by using upper-case?

as to your main generalisation, sorry, argument, i had no idea what judaism said about death and the afterlife until comparatively recently - and i've been jewish (and educated about judaism in one way or another) my whole life. somehow, i managed to reach my fourth decade without anyone saying anything in particular about what happens after we die. we know what we *do*, of course, because there's a lot of activity that has to be carried out in relationship to dead bodies, burial, mourning and commemoration, but as to what actually *happens* to the dead person's soul or essence, we don't claim to know. there are of course opinions about what constitutes the "world to come", some of which point out that the wtc may not even be about the afterlife, but the messianic age. various opinions exist about the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous, but there's nothing definitive like there is in christianity or islam. then again, judaism, unlike the other two abrahamic religions, doesn't really *have* much of a systematic theology.

my conclusion: don't waste time speculating about what you can't possibly ever find out and get on with working out what you're actually here to do and then doing it.

in short, judaism is about what you get up to during your LIFE, not about avoiding or seeking a particular outcome after your DEATH. i think we ought to have enough trust in G!D to be able to deal with that without building a speculative edifice of dogma.

b'shalom

bananabrain