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{en} Bart D. Ehrman, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020).

Abstract

"A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from, and why do they endure?" -- Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged."--Publisher description.

Contents

Guided tours of heaven and hell -- The fear of death -- Life after death before there was life after death -- Will justice be done? : the rise of postmortem rewards and punishments -- Death after death in the Hebrew Bible -- Dead bodies that return to life : the resurrection in ancient Israel -- Why wait for the resurrection? : life after death right after death -- Jesus and the afterlife -- The afterlife after Jesus' life : Paul the Apostle -- Altering the views of Jesus : the later gospels -- The afterlife mysteries of the book of Revelation -- Eternal life in the flesh -- Tactile ecstasy and torment in the Christian hereafter -- Who will inherit the blessings? : purgatory, reincarnation, and salvation for all.

External links