Life after Death A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion

Name: Life after Death A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
Price: 12.0 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780385422994

ISBN-10: 0385422997

ISBN-13: 9780385422994

Edition: 2004

Authors: Alan Segal, Alan F. Segal

List price: $39.95

30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee!

Marketplace

3 new & used from $12.00

what's this?

Rush Rewards U
Members Receive:

You have reached 400 XP and carrot coins. That is the daily max!

Description:

A magisterial work of social history,Life After Deathilluminates the many different ways ancient civilizations grappled with the question of what exactly happens to us after we die. In a masterful exploration of how Western civilizations have defined the afterlife, Alan F. Segal weaves together biblical and literary scholarship, sociology, history, and philosophy. A renowned scholar, Segal examines the maps of the afterlife found in Western religious texts and reveals not only what various cultures believed but how their notions reflected their societies’ realities and ideals, and why those beliefs changed over time. He maintains that the afterlife is the mirror in which a society arranges…

Book details

List price: $39.95
Copyright year: 2004
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Publication date: 7/13/2004
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 880
Size: 6.50" wide x 9.50" long x 1.75" tall
Weight: 1.452
Language: English

ALAN F. SEGAL is Professor of Religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author ofPaul the Convert,Rebecca’s Children, andTwo Powers in Heaven, as well as numerous scholarly articles.

Alan F. Segal was Professor of the History of Religion, Barnard College, Columbia University.



Introduction : the undiscover'd country



Egypt



Mesopotamia and canaan



The first temple period in Israel



Iranian views of the afterlife and ascent to the heavens



Greek and classical views of life after death and ascent to the heavens



Second temple judaism : the rise of a beatific afterlife in the Bible



Apocalypticism and millenarianism : the social backgrounds to the martyrdoms in Daniel and Qumran



Religiously interpreted states of consciousness : prophecy, self-consciousness, and life after death



Sectarian life in new testament times



Paul's vision of the afterlife



The gospels in contrast to Paul's writings



The pseudepigraphic literature



The church fathers and their opponents



The early rabbis



Islam and the afterlife : Muslim, Christian, and Jewish fundamentalism


Afterword : immortal longings