
Journeys to Heaven and Hell
Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Narrator: John Tefler
Unabridged: 11 hr 6 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Yale Press Audio
Published: 04/05/2022
Categories: Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity, History, Comparative Religion
Synopsis
“[An] illuminating deep dive . . . An edifying origin story for contemporary Christian conceptions of the afterlife.”—Publishers Weekly
From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged. He examines how fundamental social experiences of the early Christian communities molded the conceptions of the afterlife that eventuated into the accepted doctrines of heaven, hell, and purgatory.

