Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

by Lisa Miller

Overview

“Wonderful…. A smart and accessible take on the ultimate question: What is Heaven? Lisa’s book is a good place to begin to find an answer.”
— Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion

“A rare combination of journalism, memoir, and historical research … this smart yet heartfelt book leads us into the center of one of the greatest conversations of all time. And Lisa Miller is the perfect conversation partner.”
— Stephen Prothero, New York Times bestselling author of American Jesus and Religious Literacy

A groundbreaking history of the hereafter, Heaven by Newsweek reporter and religion editor Lisa Miller draws from both history and popular culture to reveal how past and presage visions of heaven have evolved and how they inspire us to both good and evil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060554767
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/29/2011
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	674,702
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lisa Miller is an award-winning journalist and an editor at Newsweek, where she writes regularly about religion, values, culture, and politics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 What Is Heaven? 1

2 The Miracle 27

3 The Kingdom Is Near 53

4 Green, Green Pastures 81

5 Resurrection 105

6 Salvation 125

7 Visionaries 157

8 Reunions 183

9 Is Heaven Boring? 207

Epilogue 239

Author's Note and Acknowledgments 249

Notes 255

Bibliography 297

Index 321

What People are Saying About This

Martin E. Marty

“Readers of HEAVEN will more likely than not find their own imaginations enriched, their experiences enhanced, their taste for exploration enlarged, and their impulse to reach out in empathy and hope quickened.”

Stephen Prothero

“A rare combination of journalism, memoir, and historical research by a self-professed skeptic who nonetheless believes in hope, this smart yet heartfelt book leads us into the center of one of the greatest conversations of all time. And Lisa Miller is the perfect conversation partner.”

Karen Armstrong

“This fascinating, thoughtful, and challenging study tells us a great deal about what it means to be a human being.”

Sam Harris

“Lisa Miller has long been the fairest and most engaging journalist covering religion in America. In Heaven, she has accomplished the impossible: She has written a book about religion that fundamentalists, moderates, liberals, and nonbelievers alike can read with extreme pleasure.”

Editorial Reviews

Lisa Miller has long been the fairest and most engaging journalist covering religion in America. In Heaven, she has accomplished the impossible: She has written a book about religion that fundamentalists, moderates, liberals, and nonbelievers alike can read with extreme pleasure.

Sam Harris

This fascinating, thoughtful, and challenging study tells us a great deal about what it means to be a human being.

Karen Armstrong

Readers of HEAVEN will more likely than not find their own imaginations enriched, their experiences enhanced, their taste for exploration enlarged, and their impulse to reach out in empathy and hope quickened.

Martin E. Marty

Miller’s whirlwind tour of heaven is an entertaining primer on a most complex subject.

Booklist

A rare combination of journalism, memoir, and historical research by a self-professed skeptic who nonetheless believes in hope, this smart yet heartfelt book leads us into the center of one of the greatest conversations of all time. And Lisa Miller is the perfect conversation partner.

Stephen Prothero

Miller’s whirlwind tour of heaven is an entertaining primer on a most complex subject.

Booklist

Miller (religion editor, Newsweek) offers a sample of the myriad views of heaven held by Americans today, as well as surveying the inspiration for those views, from both the Abrahamic traditions and contemporary culture. She casts a wide net for her interview subjects, including Mormons, Lubavitcher Jews, Swedenborgians, and a Catholic lay hermit, along with theologians, religious leaders, and typical Christians, Jews, and Muslims. She presents us with the historical thought and writings as well as pop culture sources that are the basis of various current understandings of heaven, including chapters on different aspects of the question of heaven such as who will be there; she even goes so far as to address the question of whether heaven will be boring. Like the stories of many people today, Miller's own religious story is complex; throughout the text, she interweaves her personal struggle with the idea of heaven. VERDICT Miller's potpourri of ancient tradition and modern opinions should prove interesting to any general reader who has ever wondered about the great beyond. All of this will already be familiar to specialists. [See "Prepub Exploded," BookSmack!, November 19, 2009]—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Lib., Wisconsin Rapids

Library Journal

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