Eschatology

Eschatology is the branch of systematic theology that concerns itself with the doctrines of the "last things (ta eschata)." Personal or individual eschatology focuses primarily on the investigation of survival in some form after death. It seeks to determine the fate or condition, temporary or eternal, of individual souls, and how far the issues of the future depend on the present life.

Eschatology, and its impact in a more universal application, deals primarily with more generalized beliefs like the possibility of a resurrection or "judgment day." In addition, eschatology also concerns itself with the circumstances purported to encompass the development of such events, such as the "knowable" signs and portents in our moral and physical universes that might precede and accompany such events as a resurrection or "judgment day."

Both aspects of eschatology -- individual and universal -- while valid aspects of the subject, do not receive equal weight in all belief systems and often, is left open to one's individual or personal beliefs.

Modern anthropologists have almost universally confirmed a common adaptation of eschatological tenets among even the most uncivilized of ancient societies and cultures. The particulars of the beliefs vary widely and the criteria for human acceptance in the theorized systems coincides. Generally, the more savage the culture, the less likelihood that retribution will play a prominent role in their afterlife and correspondingly likewise in the reverse -- the less savage, the highre more the bar for an individual's performance in the previous life.