Customer Reviews

Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

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This is a fascinating book, exhaustively researched and beautifully written. As a journalist, Miller, who writes on religion for "Newsweek," interviews all sorts of intriguing personalities on what they expect to see and do in the afterlife. But she also digs back into history to see where we got all this stuff about milk and honey and roads paved with gold. Finally, she lets us in on her own skepticism, and her own hopes, turning what might have been a dry exposition of ancient doctrines into a conversation that feels as contemporary as it is compelling. Highly recommended for believers and unbelievers alike.

When I was a little kid, first grade or so, I had a nightmare about Chilly Willie, the penguin cartoon character. Chilly was out in the ocean and he drowned. But that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was seeing the bird sitting on a cloud in heaven. And he was going to be there, doing nothing for ever. That boredom was what scared me.
That's why I was happy to see that Lisa Miller, in her book Heaven (Harper Collins 2010), included a chapter entitled "Is Heaven Boring?" Because a lot of adults wonder about that, it isn't just the mini-me. Miller explores many interesting questions about heaven and the answers provided by the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) for the last few millennia. Ideas about Heaven from culture (Dante) to pop culture (The Lovely Bones) are also presented.
Miller is Jewish, the religion editor of Newsweek and skeptical herself about the existence of heaven. But her interviews with followers of various faiths are fair and respectful. She calls Anne Graham Lotz (Billy's daughter) a friend and listens politely (and uncomfortably) to Anne pleas to take the Christian path to Heaven. She also writes about her respect for prominent atheists.
It is interesting to follow the history of views of Heaven through the years and the various ways heaven is viewed today. Is Heaven a physical place or purely spiritual? Does one get entrance to Heaven through faith or works or does everyone get in? How does one's view of Heaven affect the way one lives life? The varied answers to these questions that Miller finds are intriguing, sometime funny, and thought provoking.
I knew a lot of the things that Miller writes about. I remembered from my seminary days about Augustine's teaching that unbaptized babies would not get into heaven. (The Bishop of Hippo wrote that just as the thief on the cross would enter Heaven based on his faith, though he was not baptized; babies who are baptized enter Heaven though they have not faith.) I hadn't known (or remembered) that the church father went on to argue that there was a special baby hell, wherein baby souls wouldn't really even notice their torture. (Baby hell is a concept worth pondering.)
I was unaware of some of the Muslim theories of the intermediary state between death and the Resurrection. This is a theory that two angels with green eyes and long fangs test the newly dead with a series of questions. Those who pass the test with flying colors will get a window view of heaven. Second tier corpses will get a window to hell with the assurance that they won't go there. Third level is pretty bad because your grave will be set afire and fourth is worse because your sins are turned into wild animals that will attack you.
I also found fascinating the archeological evidence that in ancient Israel, people kept their ancestors bones under there house and may have consulted and/or worshiped them.
Miller can, of course, present no definitive conclusions with her research. But she seems to believe that it is a challenge to rationalism to believe in Heaven and is very uncomfortable with the idea that there is only one route to get there.
Obviously, these are difficult questions. But I believe in a powerful God who can do as He chooses. And that He has graciously choose to give life to His people after life on this earth.
And as to that question of whether Heaven is boring, I came to my own conclusions when I attended camp as a kid, a few years after that penguin dream. A speaker at camp pointed to the beauty around us (the spectacular Sierra Nevada Mountains) and the fun we'd had though the week (swimming, games, archery, great food) and said that a God who thought up such great things would have even better things to come. For me, that answered my fear. That's when I trusted Christ for forgiveness of my sins and began looking forward to Heaven.

I wind up reading quite a few of the books that are featured on John Stewart's The Daily Show so I was really looking forward to this read. Truthfully, I could have learned as much after spending an hour or two on the Internet. The book is listed as 368 pages but is really only 239. I don't count the epilogue, which consists mostly of a long ,rambling personal story. This was too much like having lunch with somebody who won't let you get a word in edgewise and then having to pick up the tab. There are much better books on the subject.

Ms. Miller's historical overview is excellent. Our interpretation of what exists in the afterlife has greatly changed in the past 2500 years. It has grown and matured as mankind has grown more complex. Ms. Miller makes this journey fascinating. She also debunks many of our current myths about other religions' views of heaven [e.g., the 72 virgins of Islam]. Yes, as this book is written by an American, for the American audience, she does, for the most part, deal with the three major religions in America. This may be off-putting to some. One warning: You must approach this book with an open mind. When I was reading it, one deeply religious Baptist friend asked me what I was reading, and I explained that it was a book that described how our views on heaven have changed over the past 2500 years. She gave me a blank expression, and informed me that "Heaven has never changed!" I had to quickly say, "Heaven may not have changed, but our understanding and interpretation of it sure has!" Ms. Miller has done an excellent job of writing on a difficult subject.

I've found my soul sister! Meet Lisa Miller, a self-described journalist, religion expert, and professional skeptic. She sometimes wants to believe, but it isn't in her. She misses her grandparents, and wishes she could picture them contentedly up there in heaven waiting for her, but she just can't. Her journey in this book to learn about heaven may have been spurred by a certain emptiness.

In search of heaven, Lisa interviews dozens of people, from rock musicians to homemakers to heavy-hitting theologians. From Muslims to Jews (her heritage) to Christians and beyond. She finds that, for most people, heaven is the best of what they already enjoy on earth--only a little better. And forever.

Lisa likes statistics, and the statistics show religious views are changing. Today, 65 percent of Americans believe that many different religious paths can lead to eternal salvation. Only a third of Americans still believe in a God who controls human events. Yet, 81 percent of Americans tell pollsters that they believe in heaven, up from 72 percent ten years earlier. How can this be? "It's hard to know exactly what they mean--beyond an automatic and understandable hope for something after death besides the terrifying end of everything." Belief in reincarnation, for example, is trending upward, fueled in part because people today WANT to come back and live again. Life is better in our age. Where before, we wanted to escape the cycle, now we want another run at it.

A fun and thought-provoking book, I'd recommend this one for anyone.

Heaven: God's Abode, Paradise, Cloud Nine, eternal and supreme love, joy, and bliss along with all that one's righteous soul yearns is found in this glorious place. Therein Lisa Miller (editor of Religion for Newsweek" magazine) examines and offers a "literal-minded skeptical" assessment of the afterlife. She writes about this intriguing and essential topic as she evaluates the sundry notions of the afterlife from the standpoint of the ancient Greeks, Old Testament, New Testament, Koran, and many other ideas concerning that which lies beyond the grave.

This silky and fascinating read covers the doctrine of the afterlife from many perspectives including views of:

- Judaism
- Plato
- Orthodox Christianity
- Augustine
- Islam
- Liberal Mainline Religious adherents
- Eastern religious groups
- Mormon and many others.

Miller's marvelously written book provides thorough and profound historical and scriptural research garlanded with her non-traditional opinions (atheist Sam Harris endorses this book).

Alluring, delightful, and is written in charming and winsome prose; this volume makes a wonderful read for the devout and the doubter.

And it's affordably priced!

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A Cautionary Presage: The notes I write below may disappoint, displease, and upset readers who do not affirm a confessional Christian view and possibly may hurt some readers' feelings. Below is potentially alarming apologetic truth. If you dislike conservative religious viewpoints and Christian apologetics, you may want to cease from reading. The following is based on my personal research as a conservative Christian theist who disallows Miller's epistemic pre-commitments.

I resist Miller's notion that the truth that "Jesus died and rose again..." has "strained the credulity of even the most devoted believer." I refer the reader to works on the Resurrection by Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, N.T. Wright, and my brief refutation below.

One mustn't completely rest his worldview on brute facts, nonetheless some of the facts concerning the Resurrection of Christ are:

- Numerous eyewitnesses testified under the threat of death that they saw the risen Jesus, including 500 people at one time.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

- All the apostles, except John, died a horrible death knowing they saw Jesus alive from the dead. Hundreds more died because they would not recant the fact that they saw the risen Jesus. Not one Apostle recanted to save himself from a torturous death.

- The resurrection of Christ was proclaimed in the city of Jerusalem where the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection took place. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, his enemies only had to produce his body and this new religion that they hated would be terminated before it started.

- The conversion of the opponents of Christianity, including many Jewish Priests and Pharisees (Acts 6:7, 15:5, 20:21), can best be explained by the resurrection of Christ. The risen Jesus converted many of those who executed Him because of the overwhelming evidence of His resurrection and His many appearances.

- Ancient hostile sources and extra-Biblical writers record the same facts of Christ's death and empty tomb including Josephus in his Testimonium Flavianum recorded below:

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day" (Josephus 96 AD: Antiquities 18.3.3).

- The continuous defense of the resurrection in front of Roman government officials from Paul to Tertullian was unchallenged by Rome and all ancient historians. No other plausible explanation, other than the resurrection, existed or the precise government records could have been employed to refute the Christian claims.

- Jesus' tomb was secured and guarded by well-trained Jewish and Roman guards. The tomb had a Roman seal to prevent tampering, with the threat of execution for breaking the seal, yet the tomb was empty. Every ancient historical source that discusses the subject verifies that the tomb was empty.

Of course the real fight is between presuppositions, moral pre-commitments, and a priori assumptions. The Christian presupposes God who raised Christ from the dead; He alone provides all the required preconditions for immutable universals, moral law, and fixed truth that allow one to investigate anything, including the resurrection of Christ. Resist the truth of CT and one lacks a ground to study and contend against anything.

Nonetheless if one attempts to rest their worldview on Empiricism one falls into a fallacy:

A causes B.
Empirical experience observes A always precedes B.
There seems to be constant conjunction one always sees
A followed by B in repeated experience.
WITHOUT an immutable epistemic ground for causality, it violates the classic informal fallacy post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

Attempts to disprove God/miracles/the Resurrection through empiricism (truth is found through man's five senses alone) is thus not certain nor formally logical. Moreover the form of any worldview, requires a priori (something prior to or independent of observation and experience, which is assumed to be true) equipment. But a priori truths cannot be justified from observation. Universal truths (laws of logic and absolute morals) must be presupposed in forming any worldview, but empiricism cannot provide the conditions that are necessary for them. Resting one's worldview on mere empiricism (observation or data/info accumulation from 5 senses), apart from the universal pre-essentials, can only result in nonsense and the unintelligibility of that which one observes. Interpreting and making sense of that which is observed cannot come from brute observation. There must be knowledge equipment already supplied that is not justified by the five senses. God alone provides the prior essentials for the intelligibility of observation that empiricism requires. God is inescapable.

Additionally I one cannot build a worldview from the ground of Empiricism whereas:
1. All observed r's have been t's.
2. r, NOT yet observed, may or may not be a t.
3. Therefore it is illogical to have sense observation as the ground of one's worldview.
- I would add that one cannot tie together the a priori and the a posteriori by means of empiricism.
--
In an interview Miller is non-assertive:
Alex Tsakiris: Why so noncommittal? I don't understand that.

Lisa Miller: I'm not noncommittal. I'm answering your question as best as I can. Truly I am.

Alex Tsakiris: No, you're not. You're answering a different question. You're answering the hope question, but you're not answering whether you personally, based on the evidence you've looked at in doing this work and writing this book and being the Senior Religion Editor at Newsweek Magazine, you haven't told me whether the evidence that you've taken in has persuaded you one way or another.

Lisa Miller: I said just as I think about Heaven, I think that it is a possibility and that it is something to hope for.
---
In a realm increasingly indifferent to truth, one should look to the Bible as the true source of authority concerning the afterlife. Yet, in this volume Miller has a clear and complelling style and makes for a fascinating and enjoyable summer read.
Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity

I found this a well-crafted presentation of how people view (and believe in) heaven, by one of my favorite journalists. I appreciate how Miller reports on religious beliefs in a manner neither preachy, nor abstruse. I'm an atheist, so I didn't read this for support of any religious beliefs, but because Miller brings reason and sensibility to the subject. One of my favorite non-fiction volumes, one to keep with other reference works.

I was very disappointed in the fact that she only covered these three religions, ignoring a major part of history. This is a very narrow view of history of the belief of life after death, contrary to the expectation of the title.

Her views on her book tours clearly expressed her views that other civilizations religious beliefs do not matter because she does not believe these are true religions. For instance, she does not believe that the Egyptians' belief in the afterlife is a belief in heaven because they did not call it heaven. This I believe is a spurious argument! You decide that something is not so, because you do not want it to be so because of semantics. The same is true of Valhalla of the Vikings. They called it Valhalla, not heaven. Her excuse was that only warriors went there, but in the time of the Vikings, everyone was considered a warrior - there were no superfluous people in a Viking village - everyone was considered a warrior of some sort and their reward for a well lived life was entry into Valhalla.

A lack of knowledge of history is not an excuse for making sweeping generalizations about heaven and especially about her conclusion that Dante's representation of heaven is the "best" view of heaven we have about what heaven is really about!

Her book is only worth a skim at best, and only if you want your views confirmed about your Christian view of heaven as the place where the worship of God is the reason for wanting to go to heaven.

For a life long Christian and "sometimes" Methodist over +50 years, I am used to the discussions about heaven--is it a real place, a metaphor, how do you get there, will you see God, your family, etc. Lisa Miller's book is rich in history, conceptual strength, vivid and compelling language and thought provoking. The book is documented like a scholar' work and including dozens of citations, paraphrases and references to centuries of religious history. Lisa's writing is A+ thus the book's deeper content comes to life and keeps the reader engaged in learning, thinking and reflecting. My last thought is a reflection on recent family events--the death of my mother-in-law (at 92 minus one day). Her husband proceded her in death and she used to ask "will I see Bob again". After reading Lisa's book, I am comforted to believe we gave her "normative explanations" for why she would.

Lisa Miller's "Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife" is a happy discovery for those of us who enjoy thinking about life's other dimensions. Ms. Miller addresses the foundations of afterlife beliefs among those of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths and does so in a balanced and interesting way. This is an easily read book that is likely to leave the reader much more informed for having delved into it. I recommend it!