Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality [Paperback]

Gary R. Habermas (Author), J. P. Moreland (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592445098
• ISBN-13: 978-1592445097
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent work, February 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Death: (Paperback)

It is both comprehensive and scholarly. Includes three sections: evidence for immortality, nature of immortality, and implications of immortality.

Begins with some foundational work on what exactly it means for something to be rational. Works through some traditional arguments for immortality and assesses them. Also covers the claims of Jesus and, significantly, it responds to the claims of athiest Michael Martin. Also discusses NDEs, heaven, and hell.

This book is written with a non-believer in mind. I don't know, however, how convincing it would be to a non-believer because it deals primarily with the mind and not the heart. Additionally, my encounters with non-believers reinforces to me that you can doubt anything, even when it is non-sensical to do so. Faith is an issue of the condition of you heart. What I do know is that the work done in this book is foundational to thinking about immortality, and that anyone seriously interested in this subject will be well served by reading it. I, personally, was able to expand my thinking.

In my experience, anything that JP Moreland puts his hand to is intellectually powerful and dangerous to the secular establishment.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good in spite of some flaws, April 22, 2007

By 

The Actor (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality (Paperback)

I have to say that this is a good book overall that helped me defend my faith better.

The first section, on the evidence for immortality, is the strongest in my opinion, especially in their case for substance dualism (the traditional soul-body distinction), which is critical for the Christian view of immortality, and refutation of physicalism (the idea that humans are reducible to matter alone).

I have to admit that, even after reading their chapters on Near Death Experiences (NDEs), I still remain a bit skeptical about them, although these chapters certainly gave me a lot to think about and I have to admit that they brought up good points.

Their section on the Resurrection of Jesus didn't provide much information that I didn't already know, but then again I've read book-length defenses of that already so I guess I can't blame the authors too much for that. It's still pretty good given their space, especially if you haven't read a defense of it before.

Their second section, on the nature of immortality, was probably the weakest of the three. It still has a lot of good information in it, but unfortunately it suffers from a bit of excessive speculation on the part of the authors. The chapter on reincarnation, which a surprising number of professing Christians believe in, is pretty useful though, and the chapter on the doctrine of hell brings up some really good points.

The third section, on the implications of immortality (if immortality is true, so what?), is really practical. It has really interesting, informative, and useful discussions on issues like euthanasia, abortion, end-of-life issues, living in light of eternity, fear of death, etc.

Overall this is a very good book, especially if you can overlook its Arminian theological slant. It is evidentialist in its approach. Even though I am a Calvinist who tends to favor presuppositional apologetics over evidentialist apologetics, I still found this book very useful and informative and would recommend it to anyone who is considering becoming a Christian or any Christian who is trying to learn to defend his faith.

I'd recommend reading this book with "Resurrection" by Hank Hanegraaff and "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn. If you liked either of those books you may like this book too; conversely, if you liked this book, you may like those books as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book: Beyond Death, August 10, 2011

By 

donnamarie "donnamarie" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality (Paperback)

Arrived promptly and in perfect condition...is a great book for those seeking information about the evidence for God and a afterlife.