In Christian theology, the beatific vision () refers to the ultimate state of happiness that believers will experience when they see God face to face in heaven. It is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to the angel and person. A person or angel possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e., heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, i.e., the immediate contemplation of God, though it encompasses the whole of the experience of joy, with happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith. (1 Cor 13:11–12).
It is related to the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief in theosis, the Wesleyan notion of Christian perfection, and is seen in most church denominations as the reward for Christians in the afterlife.
In Islamic theology, those who die as believers and enter Jannah will be given the vision of Allah.
Etymology
"Beatific" is derived from the Latin past participle , made happy. "Vision" comes from the Latin noun , sight; so is 'a sight that makes one happy'.
Judaism
According to Rashi, the face of God is twofold: God's care for Israel, and God's essence.
According to rabbinic literature, all the prophets of the Tanakh (Old Testament) saw God dimly, as if through nine glass windows - save for Moses, who saw God clearly, as if through one glass window ((Yeb. 49b; Lev. R. i. 14)).
Christianity
New Testament
According to the New Testament, Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes that the pure of heart will see God (Matthew 5:8) and that children's angels see the face of God the Father (Matthew 18:10). The Apostles teach that "[f]or now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12), that without holiness "no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14), and that God's people "will see his face" (Revelation 22:4).
History
upright=0.7|right|thumb|[[Gustave Dore's image of the beatific vision, from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy]]
In Christianity, the Bible states that God "dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has even seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:16), but when God reveals himself to us in heaven we will then see him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). This concept has been termed "the beatific vision of God" by theologians of the Catholic Church and later on by various Protestant denominations, including the Lutheran Church and the Methodist Church.
Methodist co-founder Charles Wesley, in his 1747 hymn "Maker, in Whom We Live", described union with God through the Holy Spirit as "beatific sight":