Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

Description

"Wonderful...A smart and accessible take on the ultimate question: What is Heaven? Lisa's book is a good place to begin to find an answer." - Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion "A rare combination of journalism, memoir, and historical research ...this smart yet heartfelt book leads us into the center of one of the greatest conversations of all time. And Lisa Miller is the perfect conversation partner." - Stephen Prothero, New York Times bestselling author of American Jesus and Religious Literacy A groundbreaking history of the hereafter, Heaven by Newsweek reporter and religion editor Lisa Miller draws from both history and popular culture to reveal how past and presage visions of heaven have evolved and how they inspire us to both good and evil.

Lisa Miller is the Religion Editor for Newsweek. She also writes the biweekly BeliefWatch column in the Periscope section of the magazine. Formerly a senior special writer covering religion for the Wall Street Journal's front page, she began her professional journalism career at the Harvard Business Review. She has won numerous awards for her writing, and has helped launch "OnFaith," an online global conversation about religion and faith. She has also worked for the Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, and Self magazine. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

"This fascinating, thoughtful, and challenging study tells us a great deal about what it means to be a human being." -- Karen Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of A History of God and The Case for God "Lisa Miller has long been the fairest and most engaging journalist covering religion in America. In Heaven, she has accomplished the impossible: She has written a book about religion that fundamentalists, moderates, liberals, and nonbelievers alike can read with extreme pleasure." -- Sam Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation "Delightful and insightful... This marvelous work is a readable and wonderfully realized study of this 'constant hope' that we share... Whether we're informed by scripture or by popular culture, HEAVEN will delight and edify readers at every level." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A rare combination of journalism, memoir, and historical research by a self-professed skeptic who nonetheless believes in hope, this smart yet heartfelt book leads us into the center of one of the greatest conversations of all time. And Lisa Miller is the perfect conversation partner." -- Stephen Prothero, New York Times bestselling author of American Jesus and Religious Literacy "Readers of HEAVEN will more likely than not find their own imaginations enriched, their experiences enhanced, their taste for exploration enlarged, and their impulse to reach out in empathy and hope quickened." -- Martin E. Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago "Miller's whirlwind tour of heaven is an entertaining primer on a most complex subject." -- Booklist