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 […]
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
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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
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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
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On April 2nd, Lisa appeared on NPR and WNYC’s “The Takeaway” with hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee. You can play the podcast using the player below, or download the mp3 file. local mirror of this podcast
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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
Time Magazine’s Kayla Webley on “Heaven” Read More »
Do Jews believe in heaven? I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been asked this question. Modern people—and especially Jews raised in the Reform tradition—are flummoxed by the notion of heaven, and the rabbis are less than helpful. “Jews believe it is this life that matters, not the next”: You hear this
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There are those who believe that science will eventually explain everything—including our enduring belief in heaven. The thesis here is very simple: heaven is not a real place, or even a process or a supernatural event. It’s something that happens in your brain as you die. I first encountered this idea as I was researching
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