Heaven; A History; Second Edition

Including a substantial new Preface on changing views of life after death in the new century, this copiously illustrated book describes the ways in which believers--from biblical authors to present-day religious thinkers--have pictured Heaven, not just in doctrine but also in poetry, art, literature, and popular culture.

Preface to the Second Edition

xiii

Preface

xxi

The Dawn of Heaven

1

(22)

The Semitic Background: Communicating with the Dead

2

(5)

Yahweh Alone: No Promise for the Dead

7

(4)

Apocalypticism: The Promise of Resurrection

11

(3)

Hellenistic Judaism: The Promise of Heaven

14

(5)

Jewish Views of the Afterlife in the First Century

19

(4)

Jesus and the Christian Promise

23

(24)

Jesus: No Marriage in Heaven

24

(8)

Paul: Spiritual Bodies

32

(5)

Revelation to John: The Heavenly Liturgy

37

(7)

The Christian Promise

44

(3)

Irenaeus and Augustine on our Heavenly Bodies

47

(22)

A Compensation for Martyrs: The Glorified Material World

48

(6)

The Ascetic Promise: A Heaven for Souls

54

(5)

The Ecclesiastical Promise: Physical Beauty Eternalized

59

(8)

The Varieties of the Patristic Paradise

67

(2)

Medieval Promises

69

(42)

Paradise Garden and Heavenly City

70

(10)

The Empyren Heaven as a Place of Light

80

(8)

Everlasting Contemplation of the Divine

88

(6)

The Promise of Love

94

(14)

Medieval Heavens

108

(3)

The Pleasures of Renaissance Paradise

111

(34)

The Pleasures of a Paradise Garden

112

(11)

Meeting Again in Heaven: Lovers and Saints

123

(19)

The Geography of Heaven

142

(3)

God at the Center: Protestant and Catholic Reformers

145

(36)

Protestant Reformers: Luther and Calvin

146

(10)

The Catholic Reformers

156

(11)

The Pious and Ascetic Middle Class

167

(10)

Theocentric Heaven

177

(4)

Swedenborg and the Emergence of a Modern Heaven

181

(47)

The Immediacy of Life after Death

184

(6)

The Material Character of Heaven

190

(9)

Matter in Motion

199

(10)

Society, Friendship, and Love

209

(15)

Modern Heaven

224

(4)

Love in the Heavenly Realm

228

(48)

Pre-Romantic Precursors: Milton and Swedenborg

229

(4)

Heaven as Union of Lovers

233

(24)

Love and Marriage

257

(7)

Life in the Heavenly Home

264

(9)

The Triumph of Human Love

273

(3)

Eternal Motion: Progress in the Other World

276

(31)

Kinetic Revolution in Heaven

277

(10)

Persisting Theocentric Traditions

287

(5)

Spiritiualism: A Thick Description of Heaven

292

(11)

Anthropocentric Heaven

303

(4)

Heaven in Contemporary Christianity

307

(46)

Modern Heavens: A Wish...

309

(4)

...and a Theology

313

(9)

The Decline of the Modern Heaven

322

(4)

The Symbolist Compromise

326

(6)

Realized Eschatology: Heaven on Earth

332

(3)

Theocentric Minimalism

335

(10)

Theology without Promise

345

(4)

What Happened to Heaven?

349

(4)

Paradise Found: Themes and Variations

353

(6)

Notes

359

(40)

Author Index

399

(4)

Subject Index

403

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Heaven; A History; Second Edition

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials