Author: Daniel Quinn
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307428699
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
The guide of choice for anyone who plans to die someday--are YOU ready for the AFTERLIFE? To find out, take this simple quiz: 1. Like Earth, the Afterlife has celebrities, outcasts, deadheads, losers, and busybodies. True False 2. Is there an Afterlife after the Afterlife? Yes No 3. When you first arrive on "the Other Side," you will be given: a) a set of wings b) a toaster c) a copy of A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife Don't worry if you're not sure how to respond. A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife has answers to these questions and more--and if you're lucky, some of them may turn out to be right! An irreverent, one-of-a-kind compendium from the award-winning author of Ishmael, A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife can be read as a parable, an allegory, a work of fiction--or exactly what it claims to be: a helpful handbook for the recently deceased. It is filled with uncommon wisdom, bizarre imaginings, uncanny perceptions, and unexpected humor. Is it fantastic escapism or a seminal event in human history? Read it and find out.... Face it. The Afterlife is the ultimate test. You might as well study.
A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife
Author: Daniel Quinn
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307428699
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
The guide of choice for anyone who plans to die someday--are YOU ready for the AFTERLIFE? To find out, take this simple quiz: 1. Like Earth, the Afterlife has celebrities, outcasts, deadheads, losers, and busybodies. True False 2. Is there an Afterlife after the Afterlife? Yes No 3. When you first arrive on "the Other Side," you will be given: a) a set of wings b) a toaster c) a copy of A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife Don't worry if you're not sure how to respond. A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife has answers to these questions and more--and if you're lucky, some of them may turn out to be right! An irreverent, one-of-a-kind compendium from the award-winning author of Ishmael, A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife can be read as a parable, an allegory, a work of fiction--or exactly what it claims to be: a helpful handbook for the recently deceased. It is filled with uncommon wisdom, bizarre imaginings, uncanny perceptions, and unexpected humor. Is it fantastic escapism or a seminal event in human history? Read it and find out.... Face it. The Afterlife is the ultimate test. You might as well study.
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307428699
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
The guide of choice for anyone who plans to die someday--are YOU ready for the AFTERLIFE? To find out, take this simple quiz: 1. Like Earth, the Afterlife has celebrities, outcasts, deadheads, losers, and busybodies. True False 2. Is there an Afterlife after the Afterlife? Yes No 3. When you first arrive on "the Other Side," you will be given: a) a set of wings b) a toaster c) a copy of A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife Don't worry if you're not sure how to respond. A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife has answers to these questions and more--and if you're lucky, some of them may turn out to be right! An irreverent, one-of-a-kind compendium from the award-winning author of Ishmael, A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife can be read as a parable, an allegory, a work of fiction--or exactly what it claims to be: a helpful handbook for the recently deceased. It is filled with uncommon wisdom, bizarre imaginings, uncanny perceptions, and unexpected humor. Is it fantastic escapism or a seminal event in human history? Read it and find out.... Face it. The Afterlife is the ultimate test. You might as well study.
Illuminating the Afterlife
Author: Cyndi Dale
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1427099596
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
We all want to know what happens when we die. According to Cyndi Dale, we don't have to wait to find out. With Illuminating the Afterlife, this internationally renowned author presents a compelling investigation of the soul's journey - an evolutionary cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that we travel as we ascend through the spiritual "Planes of Light."
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1427099596
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
We all want to know what happens when we die. According to Cyndi Dale, we don't have to wait to find out. With Illuminating the Afterlife, this internationally renowned author presents a compelling investigation of the soul's journey - an evolutionary cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that we travel as we ascend through the spiritual "Planes of Light."
American Afterlife
Author: Kate Sweeney
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820346896
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
An award-winning writer explores the patchwork American cultural history of grieving the departed. One family inters their matriarch’s ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, “You can make mummies with it!” while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter’s grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected where her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter’s hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes. What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale―that of death in America. It’s a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it. American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who are personally involved with death: obit writers in the desert, an Atlantic funeral voyage, a fourth-generation funeral director―even a midwestern museum that shows us our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another, revealing a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that’s by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny. “Sweeney’s quest for the “why” behind mourning rituals has given us a book in the best tradition of narrative journalism.”—Jessica Handler, author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing about Grief and Loss
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820346896
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
An award-winning writer explores the patchwork American cultural history of grieving the departed. One family inters their matriarch’s ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, “You can make mummies with it!” while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter’s grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected where her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter’s hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes. What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale―that of death in America. It’s a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it. American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who are personally involved with death: obit writers in the desert, an Atlantic funeral voyage, a fourth-generation funeral director―even a midwestern museum that shows us our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another, revealing a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that’s by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny. “Sweeney’s quest for the “why” behind mourning rituals has given us a book in the best tradition of narrative journalism.”—Jessica Handler, author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing about Grief and Loss
The Afterlife
Author: Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1609883179
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
What happens when we die? Is there really a heaven and a hell? What can we expect on the other side? In this profoundly insightful and fascinating work, world-renowned author Elizabeth Clare Prophet answers these questions and more as she sheds new light on the mysteries of the life beyond. Gifted with powerful inner sight, enabling her to trace the journey of souls into the afterlife, she begins by sharing stories of those who have passed on as she reveals what they experienced and why. She explores common misconceptions about the afterlife and even takes us to the movies to show how Hollywood has gotten it both right and wrong. As she opens the door into hidden dimensions, you will learn what happens during the life review (and “pre-life” review), what we do and who we meet in the afterlife, why suicide isn’t a solution, the truth about forgiveness, and how you can help your loved ones make a safe and peaceful transition. Just as importantly, you’ll explore how your options in the afterlife will depend on the choices you make in this life. With clarity and compassion, this life-changing guide to what comes next will show you how to make the most of life’s opportunities as you prepare for the ultimate journey.
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1609883179
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
What happens when we die? Is there really a heaven and a hell? What can we expect on the other side? In this profoundly insightful and fascinating work, world-renowned author Elizabeth Clare Prophet answers these questions and more as she sheds new light on the mysteries of the life beyond. Gifted with powerful inner sight, enabling her to trace the journey of souls into the afterlife, she begins by sharing stories of those who have passed on as she reveals what they experienced and why. She explores common misconceptions about the afterlife and even takes us to the movies to show how Hollywood has gotten it both right and wrong. As she opens the door into hidden dimensions, you will learn what happens during the life review (and “pre-life” review), what we do and who we meet in the afterlife, why suicide isn’t a solution, the truth about forgiveness, and how you can help your loved ones make a safe and peaceful transition. Just as importantly, you’ll explore how your options in the afterlife will depend on the choices you make in this life. With clarity and compassion, this life-changing guide to what comes next will show you how to make the most of life’s opportunities as you prepare for the ultimate journey.
Anne Frank
Author: Francine Prose
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959162
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
“Prose’s book is a stunning achievement. . . . Now Anne Frank stands before us. . . a figure who will live not only in history but also in the literature she aspired to create.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune In June, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic. For two years, she described life in hiding in vivid, unforgettable detail and grappled with the unfolding events of World War II. Before the attic was raided in August, 1944, Anne Frank furiously revised and edited her work, crafting a piece of literature that she hoped would be read by the public after the war. And read it has been. In Anne Frank, bestselling author Francine Prose deftly parses the artistry, ambition, and enduring influence of Anne Frank’s beloved classic, The Diary of a Young Girl. She investigates the diary’s unique afterlife: the obstacles and criticism Otto Frank faced in publishing his daughter’s words; the controversy surrounding the diary’s Broadway and film adaptations, and the social mores of the 1950s that reduced it to a tale of adolescent angst and love; the conspiracy theories that have cried fraud, and the scientific analysis that proved them wrong. Finally, having assigned the book to her own students, Prose considers the rewards and challenges of teaching one of the world’s most read, and banned, books. How has the life and death of one girl become emblematic of the lives and deaths of so many, and why do her words continue to inspire? Approved by both the Anne Frank House Foundation in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank-Fonds in Basel, run by the Frank family, Anne Frank unravels the fascinating story of a memoir that has become one of the most compelling, intimate, and important documents of modern history.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959162
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
“Prose’s book is a stunning achievement. . . . Now Anne Frank stands before us. . . a figure who will live not only in history but also in the literature she aspired to create.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune In June, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic. For two years, she described life in hiding in vivid, unforgettable detail and grappled with the unfolding events of World War II. Before the attic was raided in August, 1944, Anne Frank furiously revised and edited her work, crafting a piece of literature that she hoped would be read by the public after the war. And read it has been. In Anne Frank, bestselling author Francine Prose deftly parses the artistry, ambition, and enduring influence of Anne Frank’s beloved classic, The Diary of a Young Girl. She investigates the diary’s unique afterlife: the obstacles and criticism Otto Frank faced in publishing his daughter’s words; the controversy surrounding the diary’s Broadway and film adaptations, and the social mores of the 1950s that reduced it to a tale of adolescent angst and love; the conspiracy theories that have cried fraud, and the scientific analysis that proved them wrong. Finally, having assigned the book to her own students, Prose considers the rewards and challenges of teaching one of the world’s most read, and banned, books. How has the life and death of one girl become emblematic of the lives and deaths of so many, and why do her words continue to inspire? Approved by both the Anne Frank House Foundation in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank-Fonds in Basel, run by the Frank family, Anne Frank unravels the fascinating story of a memoir that has become one of the most compelling, intimate, and important documents of modern history.
Internet Afterlife
Author: Kevin O'Neill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Can you imagine swapping your body for a virtual version? This technology-based look at the afterlife chronicles America's fascination with death and reveals how digital immortality may become a reality. The Internet has reinvented the paradigm of life and death: social media enables a discourse with loved ones long after their deaths, while gaming sites provide opportunities for multiple lives and life forms. In this thought-provoking work, author Kevin O'Neill examines America's concept of afterlife—as imagined in cyberspace—and considers how technologies designed to emulate immortality present serious challenges to our ideas about human identity and to our religious beliefs about heaven and hell. The first part of the work—covering the period between 1840 and 1860—addresses post-mortem photography, cemetery design, and spiritualism. The second section discusses Internet afterlife, including online memorials and cemeteries; social media legacy pages; and sites that curate passwords, bequests, and final requests. The work concludes with chapters on the transhumanist movement, the philosophical and religious debates about Internet immortality, and the study of technologies attempting to extend life long after the human form ceases.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Can you imagine swapping your body for a virtual version? This technology-based look at the afterlife chronicles America's fascination with death and reveals how digital immortality may become a reality. The Internet has reinvented the paradigm of life and death: social media enables a discourse with loved ones long after their deaths, while gaming sites provide opportunities for multiple lives and life forms. In this thought-provoking work, author Kevin O'Neill examines America's concept of afterlife—as imagined in cyberspace—and considers how technologies designed to emulate immortality present serious challenges to our ideas about human identity and to our religious beliefs about heaven and hell. The first part of the work—covering the period between 1840 and 1860—addresses post-mortem photography, cemetery design, and spiritualism. The second section discusses Internet afterlife, including online memorials and cemeteries; social media legacy pages; and sites that curate passwords, bequests, and final requests. The work concludes with chapters on the transhumanist movement, the philosophical and religious debates about Internet immortality, and the study of technologies attempting to extend life long after the human form ceases.
The Journey After Life
Author: Cyndi Dale
Publisher: Sounds True
ISBN: 9781604078534
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
We all want to know what happens when we die. According to Cyndi Dale, we don't have to wait to find out. With The Journey After Life, this internationally renowned author presents a compelling investigation of the soul's journey—an evolutionary cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that we travel as we ascend through the spiritual "Planes of Light." Drawing on her broad understanding of thanatology (the study of death from medical, psychological, and spiritual perspectives) as well as her own extraordinary experiences as an intuitive healer and psychic, Dale has created a comprehensive primer on how we can ready ourselves for "the adventure we call death," including: Is there a Heaven or a Hell? Are we reunited with our loved ones? Answers to the most common questions about the afterlife. • The twelve Planes of Light that mark each step in the soul's evolution—and how to determine your own soul's progression • How your chakras connect you to each Plane of Light • What happens in cases such as sudden death or suicide • Understanding entities such as angels, spirit guides, ghosts, and demons, and how they affect you "I have learned that we have nothing to fear from death," explains Cyndi Dale. With a healer's gentle touch and a visionary's profound wisdom, she presents a modern "Book of the Dead"—full of insights into the most mystifying questions of our mortal existence. The Journey After Life offers a unique insight into the remarkable odyssey that awaits us all—the soul's voyage from darkness into light.
Publisher: Sounds True
ISBN: 9781604078534
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
We all want to know what happens when we die. According to Cyndi Dale, we don't have to wait to find out. With The Journey After Life, this internationally renowned author presents a compelling investigation of the soul's journey—an evolutionary cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that we travel as we ascend through the spiritual "Planes of Light." Drawing on her broad understanding of thanatology (the study of death from medical, psychological, and spiritual perspectives) as well as her own extraordinary experiences as an intuitive healer and psychic, Dale has created a comprehensive primer on how we can ready ourselves for "the adventure we call death," including: Is there a Heaven or a Hell? Are we reunited with our loved ones? Answers to the most common questions about the afterlife. • The twelve Planes of Light that mark each step in the soul's evolution—and how to determine your own soul's progression • How your chakras connect you to each Plane of Light • What happens in cases such as sudden death or suicide • Understanding entities such as angels, spirit guides, ghosts, and demons, and how they affect you "I have learned that we have nothing to fear from death," explains Cyndi Dale. With a healer's gentle touch and a visionary's profound wisdom, she presents a modern "Book of the Dead"—full of insights into the most mystifying questions of our mortal existence. The Journey After Life offers a unique insight into the remarkable odyssey that awaits us all—the soul's voyage from darkness into light.
The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825
Author: David A. Brewer
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812201434
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community. By tracing these practices, David A. Brewer shows how the literary canon emerged as much "from below" as out of any of the institutions that have been credited with their invention. Indeed, he reveals the astonishing degree to which authors had to cajole readers into granting them authority over their own creations, authority that seems self-evident to a modern audience. In its innovative methodology and its unprecedented attention to the productive interplay between the audience, the book as a material artifact, and the text as an immaterial entity, The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 offers a compelling new approach to eighteenth-century studies, the history of the book, and the very idea of character itself.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812201434
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community. By tracing these practices, David A. Brewer shows how the literary canon emerged as much "from below" as out of any of the institutions that have been credited with their invention. Indeed, he reveals the astonishing degree to which authors had to cajole readers into granting them authority over their own creations, authority that seems self-evident to a modern audience. In its innovative methodology and its unprecedented attention to the productive interplay between the audience, the book as a material artifact, and the text as an immaterial entity, The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 offers a compelling new approach to eighteenth-century studies, the history of the book, and the very idea of character itself.
My Son and the Afterlife
Author: Elisa Medhus
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1582704619
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Love knows no boundaries—not even death. An emotional journey through a mother’s grief to healing and a doctor’s skepticism to belief—discover the answers that changed one woman’s life forever, and may just change yours, too. Are you not sure of what awaits you after death? Dr. Elisa Medhus wasn’t either, having never believed in life after death. As an accomplished physician, she placed her faith in science. All of those beliefs changed after her son Erik took his own life and then reached out to her from the other side. Intimate, heartbreaking, and illuminating, this is an incredible journey from grief and skepticism to healing and belief in the afterlife. Based on Medhus’s wildly popular blog, Channeling Erik, My Son and the Afterlife is a story that is as painful as it is uplifting—depicting a mother’s healing journey as she discovers that Erik is still with her. Erik speaks from the other side with candor, wisdom, and depth as he describes his own experiences and provides new answers about the nature of souls, death, and the afterlife—answers that have the potential to change our lives forever. *Content warning: Please note that there is some explicit language present in this book
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1582704619
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Love knows no boundaries—not even death. An emotional journey through a mother’s grief to healing and a doctor’s skepticism to belief—discover the answers that changed one woman’s life forever, and may just change yours, too. Are you not sure of what awaits you after death? Dr. Elisa Medhus wasn’t either, having never believed in life after death. As an accomplished physician, she placed her faith in science. All of those beliefs changed after her son Erik took his own life and then reached out to her from the other side. Intimate, heartbreaking, and illuminating, this is an incredible journey from grief and skepticism to healing and belief in the afterlife. Based on Medhus’s wildly popular blog, Channeling Erik, My Son and the Afterlife is a story that is as painful as it is uplifting—depicting a mother’s healing journey as she discovers that Erik is still with her. Erik speaks from the other side with candor, wisdom, and depth as he describes his own experiences and provides new answers about the nature of souls, death, and the afterlife—answers that have the potential to change our lives forever. *Content warning: Please note that there is some explicit language present in this book
Heaven and Hell
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501136755
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from and why do they endure? What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven and 58% believe in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. So where did these ideas come from? In this “eloquent understanding of how death is viewed through many spiritual traditions” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), Bart Ehrman recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. He discusses ancient guided tours of heaven and hell, in which a living person observes the sublime blessings of heaven for those who are saved and the horrifying torments of hell for those who are damned. Some of these accounts take the form of near death experiences, the oldest on record, with intriguing similarities to those reported today. One of Ehrman’s startling conclusions is that there never was a single Greek, Jewish, or Christian understanding of the afterlife, but numerous competing views. Moreover, these views did not come from nowhere; they were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. Only later, in the early Christian centuries, did they develop into notions of eternal bliss or damnation widely accepted today. In this “elegant history” (The New Yorker), Ehrman helps us reflect on where our ideas of the afterlife come from. With his “richly layered-narrative” (The Boston Globe) he assures us that even if there may be something to hope for when we die, there certainly is nothing to fear.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501136755
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from and why do they endure? What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven and 58% believe in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. So where did these ideas come from? In this “eloquent understanding of how death is viewed through many spiritual traditions” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), Bart Ehrman recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. He discusses ancient guided tours of heaven and hell, in which a living person observes the sublime blessings of heaven for those who are saved and the horrifying torments of hell for those who are damned. Some of these accounts take the form of near death experiences, the oldest on record, with intriguing similarities to those reported today. One of Ehrman’s startling conclusions is that there never was a single Greek, Jewish, or Christian understanding of the afterlife, but numerous competing views. Moreover, these views did not come from nowhere; they were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. Only later, in the early Christian centuries, did they develop into notions of eternal bliss or damnation widely accepted today. In this “elegant history” (The New Yorker), Ehrman helps us reflect on where our ideas of the afterlife come from. With his “richly layered-narrative” (The Boston Globe) he assures us that even if there may be something to hope for when we die, there certainly is nothing to fear.