Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife

The idea of death is so frightening that it probably explains why religions exist in the first place. It's like a metaphysical insurance for those who fear the void. Over half of Americans believe in a literal hell and almost 75 percent believe in a literal heaven. Many of them identify as Christians, despite neither eternal rewards nor eternal damnation being mentioned in the bible. Author Bart Ehrman examines the question of where these concepts came from, drawing upon Sumerian, Greek, Jewish, and Roman sources to paint a picture of the proto-afterlifes that would go on to be part of the zeitgeist.

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