Presby-Musings

The following list of books with accompanying reviews represents some of the more challenging books on Heaven that I read in preparation for the sermons I have been preaching on the Afterlife.  By challenging I mean that they challenge the status quo, the traditional views of Heaven.  Some of them were written by non-Christians, and each of them contains conclusions (and speculations) that push the reader to reassess his/her preconceived notions about Heaven. Heaven:  Our Enduring Fascination With The Afterlife by Lisa Miller [Harper Collins, 2010] Lisa Miller is an award winning journalist in the field of religion.  She regularly has columns in Newsweek , and was formerly on staff at the Wall Street Journal  and The New Yorker .  Miller, who is Jewish, felt her fascination with the afterlife grow after the events of 9/11 and the subsequent work that she did in the new religious culture that emerged after that great tragedy.   Heaven  is the ...

What is Heaven like? Is it where God lives?  A city of gold with pearly gates?  Is it full of angels with wings, strumming harps? Or is it just a state of being in perfect peace---one with the universe, some might say. Is it where "good" people go to spend eternity after they die? Does anyone really know? Well, some people actually claim that they do.  According to a Gallup pole at least 8 million people in America alone have had near-death experiences, nearly all of whom emerged from them with an unshakable belief in the afterlife. Once when I was visiting an elderly lady at her home she leaned over and in a conspiratorial whisper she told me, "I have seen Heaven."  Of course I immediately asked her "What's it like?"  She went on to describe an unbelievable journey from a bed in a hospital room through the air and to a beautiful garden filled with light.  I can still see her face as she described it. Even the most skeptical people hav...