Christian mortalism

Soul sleep is a term for the belief that the dead sleep until the resurrection.

Calvin vigil of the soul 1534

Calvin's first writing theological content was Psychopannychia ( " Vigil of the soul" ) ( Orléans, 1534), in which he condemned the doctrine of soul sleep between death and the Last Judgement. Later followed a French version; Psychopannychie - La nuit ou le sommeil de l' âme (Geneva, 1558 )

Pamphlets about the soul sleep Luther

Martin Luther often described the death as a kind of sleep. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was disputed whether Luther had taught soul sleep. The Lutheran historian Gottfried Fritschel (1867 ) argued that this doctrine is to be found in Luther's works.

The Mortalismus of Milton, Hobbes, Locke and Newton

In England, Thomas More fought with the same arguments as Calvin the doctrine of soul sleep, still Mortalismus the Enlightenment in England was widespread. Leading figures of the early Enlightenment as Milton, Locke, Hobbes and Newton rejected the immortality of the soul.