Berkeley's Theology: The Promise of Infinite Eternal Happiness

Berkeley’s theology is not a systematic set of doctrines but a collection of rather informally expressed views and viewpoints mainly concerning such practical questions as the reasonability of faith and human happiness in heaven. His most interesting ideas concern natural religion. He deals with these matters in his sermons and other minor writings, but also in Alciphron. An important question concerns ethics and moral virtue. To be virtuous we must obey God’s commands, but that is possible only if we have faith in Hhim. The importance of the second condition is often underestimated because Berkeley is seen as a philosopher. The virtuous go to heaven, where their happiness is “large as our desires,” in other words, infinite eternal bliss. However, Berkeley says we know nothing of its characteristics, or what heaven is like. He even says that we need new, possibly angelic, faculties to experience it, yet we may speculate about the nature of afterlife.