A Short History of Heaven: Heaven in the Early History of Western Religions and Today
108
A Short History of Heaven: Heaven in the Early History of Western Religions and Today
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781982200800 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Balboa Press |
| Publication date: | 03/28/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 108 |
| File size: | 238 KB |
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CHAPTER 1
Concepts of Heaven
Ideas about heaven have appeared throughout history. Jeffrey Burton Russell, American historian and religious studies scholar, in A History of Heaven, observes that heaven, a concept that has shaped much of Christian thought and attitudes, has often been neglected by modern historians. Christianity has played a central role in the West and instructs believers to direct their lives in this world with a view to achieving eternal life in the next. It is of the greatest importance that many people see their apparently imperfect physical lives as just a stage in their progress toward a world that is perfect but invisible, yet it is often neglected as a subject.
Some believe that the most important aspects of the concept of heaven are the beatific vision and the mystical union. Heaven, Russell says, is the state of being in which all are united in love with one another and with God. Furthermore, Northern Irish theologian Alister Edgar McGrath notes at least one common theme that unites all these different visions and purposes.
The Christian concept of heaven is iconic, rather than intellectual — something that makes its appeal to the imagination, rather than the intellect, which calls out to be visualized rather than merely understood.
On the other hand, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism J. Edward Wright maintains that to understand the heavenly realm as imagined by early Jews and Christians, we must begin with an appreciation of the images of the heavenly realm found in the texts of these two religious communities: the Hebrew Bible. And to understand the broader social context, we must also examine the beliefs of ancient Israel's neighbors.
So what do we need to do to enter heaven? Is faith in the divine needed to reach heaven, or is personal moral responsibility needed, or is special knowledge of magical techniques needed to attain heavenly realms? Might elements of older religions be found in Christianity? What is the relationship between heaven and earth? What are the most important concepts about heaven?
This book takes the reader on a journey through ideas of heaven from early antiquity, through the time periods covered by the Bible, and up to the Nicene Creed in CE 381. We look at areas of similarities and differences among concepts of the cosmos, the soul, the soul's journey into heaven, and the relevance of morality. The term Western is used to include the Jewish and Christian traditions along with the religions in ancient Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. Shamanism is used as a framework for indigenous traditions involving the soul's flight to the heavenly realms, notably in Siberian traditions.
The Hebrew and Christian Bibles provide us with insights into Jews' and Christians' understandings of heaven. Noncanonical texts also provide insights into early attitudes, including Gnostic traditions. Literature concerning concepts of the heavenly realm, from the neighboring cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, are also examined.
We define religion as the worship of, or ritual interaction with, divine beings of anthropomorphized natural forces.
Ideas about heaven are important today too. In September 2012, when I was living in New York, at an Episcopal church the pastor started an informal think tank to discuss heaven, with reference to Neale's book about her near-death experience: To Heaven and Back. Participants raised many questions about heaven, especially regarding personal survival after death and being reunited with loved ones. Yet it was not quite clear how this could take place. Some people felt that heaven and hell were experienced by people while they were alive on earth.
I discussed Jewish concepts of heaven with an orthodox rabbi living in Brooklyn in June 2012, over a shared meal with his family and friends. The rabbi explained that after death, every Jewish soul would go to paradise. However, first a soul may need to be refined in hell or a concept similar to purgatory (Gehenna, the burning ground) as a temporary process. After death, angels show people a replay of their lives so they can judge themselves. Then the angels assign the deceased to their intermediate destinations, which may be Gehenna or heaven, which is a stage between death and the Messianic era. When the Messiah comes, the ultimate stage of human destiny is the resurrection of the dead, when souls will return to their immortal bodies for eternity.
Ultimately, it is about bringing heaven to earth, rather than people going permanently to a spiritual heaven. The rabbi explained that resurrection takes place not only for Jewish people but also for any good person who follows the seven laws of Noah and takes every opportunity to help others. The Noahide Laws are seven moral imperatives said to have been given by God as a binding code for all humanity. These are the prohibition of idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, blasphemy, and eating flesh taken from a living animal; also included is the establishment of courts of law.
In popular culture, there have been several movies on the theme of people returning to earth from heaven on unfinished business. A classic of the genre is Warren Beatty's 1978 fantasy-comedy Heaven Can Wait, based on a 1941 movie called Here Comes Mr. Jordan. An American football player dies prematurely in an accident and aided by his guardian angel, returns to earth in the body of a recently deceased millionaire. Hilarity ensues, and through a series of events, the hero lives on in another body and resolves the pending issues he had on earth.
There has also been a steady stream of books on life after death and so-called near-death experiences. An example of this is Raymond Moody's Life after Life, a collection of stories told by people who have purportedly come back from the dead, having been medically pronounced dead and then resuscitated. While some may consider that this is the result of the high mortality rate during World War II and people's anxieties about the future after 1939, as we will see, human beings have been preoccupied with the afterlife for considerably longer than that. Clearly, heaven is an important topic for today.
Activities
What do you think will happen in the hereafter?
Is the idea of heaven important to you?
CHAPTER 2Shamanism and the Upper World
Perhaps some of the earliest views of heaven, including soul flight, can be found in shamanism. The Siberian term saman (shaman) has been known in the West for at least three hundred years. Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religion, in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (2004), introduced an early understanding this phenomenon by defining shamanism as "techniques of ecstasy." During trance, the shaman's spirit is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky, descend to the underworld, or travel in the middle earthly realm. This shamanic flight implies a sacred three-layered cosmology: the upper world, the earth, and the lower world. The shaman's spirit was thought to travel through these planes inhabited by spirit-beings. For example, Tamang shamans maintain that they magically fly through heavens and underworlds, where they encounter gods. Shamans often utilize a variation of an axis mundi, a central axis linking the realms, often represented by a cosmic tree, sacred mountain, or ladder. According to Eliade,
The pole (= axis mundi), the stripped tree trunk whose top emerges through the upper opening of the yurt (and which symbolizes the cosmic tree) is conceived as a ladder leading to heaven.
Common shamanic initiatory rites enumerated by Eliade include a period of seclusion, symbolic descent to the underworld, and hypnotic sleep induced by narcotic drinks or awaiting a vision of the tutelary animal following intoxication by a psychoactive substance. Shamanic power is supposedly derived directly from gods, ancestors, or spirits, as well as master shamans.
The Tungus people saw a central pillar, based on the North Star, as a stable cosmic polar axis connecting heaven with the earth and the underworld. The shamanic world view includes an upper sky realm, the earthly middle world, and the underworld, all containing spirits that can interact with people. It was thought that the Tungus shamans made contacts with spirits as hunters and gatherers of supernatural power. Similarly, the final initiation of the Tamang shamans represents the soul's journey to the highest heaven to behold the supreme deity enthroned at the top of a golden staircase. Eliade explains how different places could enable the ascent of the shaman, including the cosmic mountain, which a future shaman might climb in a dream during his or her initiatory illness and visit on later journeys. It was a frequent theme that a future shaman would fall seriously ill and have a series of powerful dreams or visions that equipped him or her for later service to the community as a seer and healer. The World Tree also frequently appears in folklore of the peoples of central and north Asia, among others. The tree connects the three cosmic regions, with its branches touching the sky and its roots going into the underworld.
C. Michael Smith, clinical psychologist and anthropologist, in his book Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue: Retrieving the Soul, Retrieving the Sacred, comments:
The magic tree is what the shamans mount in their journeys to the upper world, or descend via roots to the underworld. It is the axis mundi, at once a symbol for the center of the world, a symbol for the center of the psyche, the center point of orientation.
We see a modern fictional depiction of a sacred tree as the center of the world, and axis mundi, in the movie Avatar (2009). An army base of the alien world, Pandora, is called "Hell's Gate," perhaps suggesting a connection with the underworld and that the hero will learn how to rise up through the worlds like a shaman. The "Tree of Souls" is the most sacred place on Pandora, which provides access to ancient ancestral wisdom and power. An alien female (Na'vi) Neytiri leads the hero from earth, Jake Sully, to learn about the power of the sacred tree in that world and to battle threats against it.
Some people have seen elements of shamanism in early forms of Christianity. For example, Paul's blinding "road to Damascus" spiritual experience and his reported ascent to the heavens could be consistent with shamanic vision and flight. His outer sight is removed by the spirit, and he gains his inner sight through the experience. Paul's conversion experience is described in the Acts of the Apostles and his letters in the New Testament. Before his conversion, Saul, as he was then called, was a zealot and a Pharisee who persecuted the followers of Jesus. In Acts 9, he tells his story in the third person, relating that as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice ask him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" The voice revealed that the speaker was Jesus, whose followers Saul had indeed been persecuting. When Saul got up, he found that he had lost his physical sight and was blind. Upon reaching Damascus, he did not eat or drink anything for several days until his sight returned (see Acts 9:3–9). This dramatic experience led to the conversion of Saul to a follower of Christ and his transformation into the apostle Paul.
Some have understood Paul's religious life by comparing his experiences with shamanism, and his effectiveness in promoting the growth of Christianity being due to demonstrations of spiritual power, comparable to those of a shaman.
Shamanism, as conceived of in the West, has concepts of heaven parallel to those that may be seen in religions, such as an individual's ascent into the heavenly realms with help from spirit beings or angels. Furthermore, the qualifications for ascent may be a combination of special techniques and privileged interactions with spirit-beings or angels. This offers a framework for a person's journey to the heavens, as envisaged in the Judeo-Christian tradition and other cultures.
Activities
Think of a tree that has been important in your life.
When you are near the tree, or think about it, do you have a feeling of being close to the earth, as well as close to heaven?
CHAPTER 3Ancient Egypt and Early Antiquity
Understanding the broader social context in which early Jewish and Christian ideas of heaven developed begins by examining the beliefs of ancient Israel's neighbors. Here we consider the concepts of heaven prevalent in the groups that influenced early Jewish people (i.e., ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia).
Ancient Egypt participated in ancient Near East culture and influenced its neighbors, including the people of Israel. The Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom (2686–2160 BCE) consist of prayers and rituals that helped the pharaoh in his after-death journey into the celestial realm.
They made a ladder for (the Pharaoh), that he might ascend to heaven on it. The double doors of heaven are open for (him).
From the Middle Kingdom (2040–1633 BCE), the Coffin Texts are inscribed inside coffins to guide the deceased through the dangers of the afterlife. The Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts were revised and expanded during the New Kingdom (1558–1085 BCE) in a funerary collection known as the Book of the Coming Forth by Day or the Book of the Dead. Nicholas Campion, British historian of astrology and cultural astronomy and director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, observes that the soul, the Ba, might travel either to the sun's rising, to Orion, or the circumpolar stars to achieve immortality. After a ritual has been properly performed, the individual is seen as "risen and made whole," and he enters a new glorified life, conceived of in physical terms, such as being able to eat and drink.
According to ancient Egyptians, there are three main regions in the cosmos: the earth — the land of the living; the sky — a watery expanse stretched above the earth like a canopy; and the Duat — the otherworld or the underworld. The realm above the earth could be depicted in four basic forms: a bird, a cow, a woman, and a flat plane. A depiction of the goddess Nut from 323–30 BCE represents the goddess as she bends over the earth, with dual heavens comprising the sphere of the moon and the upper Nut as the sphere of the sun. Another depiction of the heavenly realm is a pastoral paradise known as the Field of Reeds. The Duat is a complex otherworldly region, including Osiris and the kingdom of the dead. According to the ancient Egyptians from this period, beyond the sky, earth, and Duat lies the limitless expanse of primal waters.
The Field of Reeds is described in three statements in the Book of the Dead (110, 109, 149) as a landscape of waterways leading through fields where abundant crops grow, in a place where gods and the blessed dead live in peace. It contains islands, mounds, fields, pathways, caves, creatures, and fantastic elements, such as lakes of fire and trees of turquoise. Mounds of sand and gravel rising above the flood plain signified the primeval mound that first emerged from the waters of chaos.
The path of the sun, moon, and planets, which the Egyptians called the "Winding Waterway," divided the sky into northern and southern parts. The northern sky contained the Field of Rest (or Offerings) and the southern sky the Field of Reeds. In the Pyramid Texts, the deceased are purified in the Field of Reeds before ascending to the sky, but in the Coffin Texts the Field of Reeds becomes a destination for the deceased, as in the Book of the Dead. In the Book of the Dead, it is not clear whether the Field of Reeds is located in the sky or under the earth, but according to Utterance 149, it seems to be in the east at the point where Ra was believed to end his nightly journey. It resembles the Nile flood plain at harvest time and is similar to the best locations of the earth. Utterance 110 describes ploughing, reaping and eating, drinking, and having sex in the field. The deceased are reunited with their parents, and then they sail to meet the gods. Any work that is needed is believed to done by the small figures placed in the tomb to serve the needs of the deceased. The tomb provides access between the world of the living and the dead for the mummy in the burial chamber. This marks the body's transition from an "inanimate corpse to a functional complex of physical and spiritual components." The ability to "come forth by day" (i.e., for a spirit to leave the tomb) is crucial in these funerary traditions.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "A Short History of Heaven"
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Copyright © 2018 Joann Greig.
Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
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Table of Contents
Introduction, ix,
Chapter 1 Concepts of Heaven, 1,
Chapter 2 Shamanism and the Upper World, 5,
Chapter 3 Ancient Egypt and Early Antiquity, 9,
Chapter 4 Ancient Mesopotamian Traditions, 14,
Chapter 5 Persia, 16,
Chapter 6 Common Themes Regarding Heaven and the Afterlife, 20,
Chapter 7 Classical Greece and Rome, 22,
Chapter 8 Mysteries of Mithras, 28,
Chapter 9 Judaism, 32,
Chapter 10 Christianity, 42,
Chapter 11 Gnosticism, 49,
Chapter 12 The Book of Revelation and the Kingdom of Heaven, 52,
Chapter 13 The Christian Nicene Creed, 58,
Chapter 14 Discussion and Conclusions, 62,
Endnotes, 79,
References, 85,