Heaven and Hell, Bart D. Ehrman
Heaven and Hell, Bart D. Ehrman
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Heaven and Hell
A History of the Afterlife

Author: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrator: John Bedford Lloyd

Unabridged: 12 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/31/2020


Synopsis

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?

What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven and 58% believe in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught.

So where did these ideas come from?

In this “eloquent understanding of how death is viewed through many spiritual traditions” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), Bart Ehrman 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. He discusses ancient guided tours of heaven and hell, in which a living person observes the sublime blessings of heaven for those who are saved and the horrifying torments of hell for those who are damned. Some of these accounts take the form of near death experiences, the oldest on record, with intriguing similarities to those reported today.

One of Ehrman’s startling conclusions is that there never was a single Greek, Jewish, or Christian understanding of the afterlife, but numerous competing views. Moreover, these views did not come from nowhere; they were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. Only later, in the early Christian centuries, did they develop into notions of eternal bliss or damnation widely accepted today.

In this “elegant history” (The New Yorker), Ehrman helps us reflect on where our ideas of the afterlife come from. With his “richly layered-narrative” (The Boston Globe) he assures us that even if there may be something to hope for when we die, there certainly is nothing to fear.

About Bart D. Ehrman

Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity. A distinguished professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including Misquoting Jesus, How Jesus Became God, and The Triumph of Christianity. He has also created nine popular audio and video courses for The Great Courses. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages, with over two million copies and courses sold.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anne on September 01, 2022

Pretty neat look at maybe why we think of Heaven and Hell the way we do in modern times. You know what I liked? I liked that Ehrman wasn't assy about people's religious beliefs. He may not share them anymore but he doesn't come across in this book as someone who looks down on anyone who does. I also l......more

Goodreads review by Jessaka on May 06, 2022

Imagine There’s No Hell December 1965. San Pablo, CA. I was studying the bible with one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who was trying to tell me that there was no real hellfire. It sounded good, but I was not sure if I should believe her or not. She suggested that I find a King James version of the bible......more

Goodreads review by Ross on May 04, 2021

As a former Christian who remains thoroughly interested in the Bible, the story of heaven and hell is one of my favorite conversation topics: it's the kind of stuff they don't unpack in Sunday school or preach in sermons, and most Christians simply aren't aware of how complex the biblical position r......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 28, 2024

This is not quite what I thought it was going to be but it’s still excellent. The subtitle A History of the Afterlife gave me the idea that it was going to be a history of ideas about the afterlife, but actually, it’s the history of Christian ideas about the afterlife in the first five centuries aft......more

Goodreads review by Brian on October 19, 2023

I really enjoyed this survey of our evolving myths on the afterlife. Ehrman traces the incremental shifts over time, from picturing death as an eternal underworld of shades (in the Hebrew Bible) -- to claiming that the righteous shall be bodily resurrected on a day of judgment (in the Jewish apocaly......more