A fascinating exploration of ideas of life after death ranging from ancient times to the present and from religion and philosophy to literature and science.
One of the most profound, deeply affecting questions we face as human beings is the matter of our mortality--and its connection to immortality. Ancient animist ghost cultures, Egyptian mummification, late Jewish hopes of resurrection, Christian eternal salvation, Muslim belief in hell and paradise all spring from a remarkably consistent impulse to tether a triumph over death to our conduct in life.
John Casey gives a magisterial overview of the Western eschatological tradition death, judgement, heaven and hell providing sympathetic and lucid summaries of a vast range of different and at times conflicting sources that is a real pleasure to read.
