Heaven: A Guide to the Undiscovered Country - Hardcover

Stanford, Peter

3.5

6 ratings by Goodreads

9781403963604: Heaven: A Guide to the Undiscovered Country

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403963606 ISBN 13: 9781403963604

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

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Heaven: From Elysian fields to black eyed virgins and pearly gates, people have different images of what waits for us in the great beyond. We fear death but long for the just rewards. We create popular images of Heaven and imagine the possibilities. From Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to Bergman's The Seventh Seal, from the Aeneid to C.S. Lewis, religion provides succor - but not all religions have the same concept of Heaven. Down the ages it has been mapped out as the ultimate travel destination and has been sold as a paradise garden, a rural Arcadia and a city of incomparable grandeur.

Prompted by his own experience of bereavement, Peter Stanford sets out on a personal journey towards the place people call Heaven. In the company of scientists, philosophers, bishops, artists, writers and atheists, Stanford explores the promise of a reality of which we all have an image.

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About the Author:

Peter Stanford is a writer and broadcaster. His books include The Devil: A Biography, The She-Pope and Catholics and Sex. He lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

The author of The Devil: A Biography and Catholics and Sex explores the idea of the afterworld, considering in this thoroughly researched book how the search for life after death is connected with the desire to fully live. Drawing upon a plethora of literary and historical sources, Stanford engagingly explores how a variety of religions-including Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism-have imagined and described heaven. And he considers the viewpoints of a bevy of artists, writers, psychologists and philosophers as well-among them Signorelli, Dante, Poe, Freud, Jung, Plato and Kant. He takes readers through the gates of heaven at the Orvieto Cathedral in Tuscany to view the Renaissance's "radical new take on heaven" as revealed in Signorelli's masterful fresco in the Cappella di San Brizio. He also describes visiting Chartres, where he reminds readers that the gorgeous stained glass windows depicting Christ's life had a purpose beyond beauty-they educated a largely illiterate population. These historical tours open up the subject of heaven with delightful detail and imagery, making an otherworldly topic (Pope John Paul II called heaven "a blessed community" that was "neither abstraction nor physical space") tangible and accessible. Standford's inclusion of five short "Traveler's Tales," which recount the near-death experiences of living and historical figures, may be another method for making the ethereal more concrete. Rich in history and testimony, this thoughtful tome is a worthy study for anyone who has a curiosity in life beyond death.
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