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 ones, where they eat nothing but delightful foods, see their deceased pets and live as they did when they were young and gorgeous.

Lisa Miller, Newsweek’s religion editor at Newsweek, has written for the publication for 10 years and in her wonderful book, “Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife,” released this week, she engages the topic of Heaven partly as a reporter and partly as a Jewish mother on her own journey.