At this point the well-known slogan of Christian Aid, ‘We believe in life before death’, comes into its own. Life before death is what is threatened, called into question, by the idea that salvation is merely ‘life after death’. If we’re heading for a timeless, bodiless eternity, then what’s the fuss about putting things right in the present world? But if what matters is the newly embodied life after ‘life after death’, then the presently embodied ‘life before death’ can at last be seen, not as an