On May 1st, 2010, Mark Oppenheimer reviewed “Heaven” in The New York Times: About a year ago, our neighbor’s beloved mutt, Bruno, went to dog heaven, followed six months later by Bear, the sweet brown Newfoundland down the block. I am not speaking metaphorically but repeating the wisdom of my 3-year-old daughter, who learned her theology from “Dog Heaven,” a …
On April 11th, 2010, Scott Russell Sanders reviewed “Heaven” in The Washington Post: “Everybody talking about heaven ain’t going there.” So runs the refrain of an African American spiritual, one source that Lisa Miller happens not to cite in her thorough survey of notions about the afterlife. The material she does reference covers a wide range, from ancient Jewish, Christian …
The Washington Post’s Scott Russell Sanders on “Heaven” Read More
On April 7, 2010, Andrew Sullivan cited the Slate.com review of heaven on The Atlantic’s Daily Dish: Johann Hari reviews Lisa Miller’s new book: The heaven you think you’re headed to–a reunion with your lost relatives in the light–is a very recent invention, only a little older than Goldman Sachs. Most of the believers in heaven across most of history …
John Lennon urged us: “Imagine there’s no heaven/ It’s easy if you try/ No hell below us/ Above us only sky …” Yet Americans aren’t turning to Lennonism any faster than Leninism. Today, 81 percent say they believe in heaven—an increase of 10 percent since a decade ago. Of those, 71 percent say it is “an actual place.” Indeed, 43 …
On April 1st, 2010, Cathal Kelly reviewed “Heaven” for the Toronto Star: “St. Thérèse of Liseux was the sort of heedless optimist the Catholic Church could use about now. “I believe in Hell,” she once said. “But I believe it is empty.” Of course it is, Sister. Haven’t you heard that Heaven is full to the gills these days? As …
As far as heaven goes, there are many more questions than answers: Will we all get our own mansions? Will we see our loved ones? Will our bodies look the way they did when we were 25? Will we even have bodies? The Bible, Koran and Torah leave much about the afterlife up in the air. That means many of …
Eighty percent of Americans believe in heaven, and yet, if you were to ask most people what they believed Heaven to be, it would be unlikely that you’d hear the same thing too often. Terrorists responsible for Sept. 11 were promised a heaven that included 72 virgins. Others think of heaven as a place where they are reunited with loved …
Mark Twain quipped that people assume heaven will be green fields and harp music — an eternity of activities no one would enjoy for five minutes while still alive. Here is a central dilemma of our preoccupation with heaven. Our imaginations are limited by our experience. When we read fantasy, or science fiction, it is always an elaboration of things …
In her brainy, engaging book Heaven — a sweeping historical and literary geography of heaven — she talks to priests, a Dominican monk, Muslim clerics, rabbis, and professors (and even visits a psychic, who channels a balding Ed Asner look-alike — no one she knows, though she racks her brain). She doesn’t ignore pop culture, either, touching on everything from …
Entertainment Weekly’s Tina Jordan Gives “Heaven” an A- Read More
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 …