A Brief History of Heaven.

Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1 The City: The New Jerusalem -- Images and the Christian Faith -- The City of Jerusalem in the Old Testament -- The City of Jerusalem in the New Testament -- Augustine of Hippo on the Two Cities -- The Heavenly City and Medieval Spirituality -- Pearl and the New Jerusalem -- John Bunyan's Heavenly City -- The Shape of the Heavenly Body -- 2 The Garden: Heaven as Paradise -- The Quest for the Garden of Eden -- Paradise in the Bible -- Early Christian Views of Paradise -- The Millennium as Paradise -- Medieval Visions of Paradise -- Dante's Divine Comedy -- Paradise and the Enclosed Garden -- Heaven as the Restoration of Eden -- 3 Opening the Gates of Heaven: Atonement and Paradise -- Christ the Victor -- Christ the Hero -- Christ the Harrower of Hell -- Christ the Redeemer: Atonement as Satisfaction -- Christ the Lover: Atonement and the Enkindling of Love -- The Institutionalization of Atonement: The Church as the Gateway to Heaven -- The Privatization of Atonement: Personal Faith as the Gateway to Heaven -- 4 The Signposting of Heaven: Signals of Transcendence -- Nature as an Anticipation of Heaven -- The Ascent of Love and the Intimation of Heaven -- Experience and the Sense of Heaven: Herbert and Traherne -- Nature as a Signpost of Heaven: Romanticism and Transcendentalism -- Longing for Heaven: C. S. Lewis -- 5 The Consolation of Heaven -- Reunion with Family in Heaven in Early Roman Christianity -- Heaven as an Encounter with God -- Heaven as a Dream: Feuerbach, Marx, and Freud -- Heaven as an Encounter with Loved Ones -- African American Spirituals -- 6 Journey's End: Heaven as the Goal of the Christian Life -- The Concept of Spirituality -- The Hope of Heaven: Theological Foundations -- The Appeal to Worship: Heaven on Earth -- Feasting in the Kingdom.

Journeying to the Promised Land -- Returning to the Homeland from Exile -- Seeing God Face to Face -- Works Consulted -- Index.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.