Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven--and How We Can Regain by Jeffrey Burton Russell

By Jeffrey Burton Russell

The Christian thought of heaven flourished for nearly millennia, however it has misplaced a lot of its strength within the final hundred years. certainly at the present time even theologians are likely to stay away from the subject. yet heaven has continuously been a significant guiding principle of the Christian religion, writes Jeffrey Burton Russell. If there's no heaven, no resurrection of the lifeless, the total Christian tale is senseless. during this stimulating e-book, Russell units out to rehabilitate heaven through forcefully attacking a sequence of rules that experience made trust in heaven, let alone trust in God, more and more tough for contemporary humans. Russell presents dependent and persuasive refutations of arguments starting from the concept that technology has disproved the lifestyles of the supernatural, to the concept that biblical feedback has emptied the scripture of that means. alongside the best way, as Russell seems on the principles of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Marx and Freud, and a bunch of others, he sheds mild not just at the heritage of Christian inspiration, yet at the strategy of secularization within the West. one after the other, Russell refutes those anti-religious ideologies, pinpointing the deficiencies in their reasoning. in the course of the e-book, Russell invitations the reader, no matter what his or her ideals, to take the idea that of heaven heavily either as a worldview in itself and as one with huge, immense impression at the global. it's a booklet that may be welcomed through considering Christians, who frequently think beleaguered through the forces of modernity and infrequently locate it difficult to guard their very own ideals.

Show description

By Jeffrey Burton Russell

The Christian thought of heaven flourished for nearly millennia, however it has misplaced a lot of its strength within the final hundred years. certainly at the present time even theologians are likely to stay away from the subject. yet heaven has continuously been a significant guiding principle of the Christian religion, writes Jeffrey Burton Russell. If there's no heaven, no resurrection of the lifeless, the total Christian tale is senseless. during this stimulating e-book, Russell units out to rehabilitate heaven through forcefully attacking a sequence of rules that experience made trust in heaven, let alone trust in God, more and more tough for contemporary humans. Russell presents dependent and persuasive refutations of arguments starting from the concept that technology has disproved the lifestyles of the supernatural, to the concept that biblical feedback has emptied the scripture of that means. alongside the best way, as Russell seems on the principles of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Marx and Freud, and a bunch of others, he sheds mild not just at the heritage of Christian inspiration, yet at the strategy of secularization within the West. one after the other, Russell refutes those anti-religious ideologies, pinpointing the deficiencies in their reasoning. in the course of the e-book, Russell invitations the reader, no matter what his or her ideals, to take the idea that of heaven heavily either as a worldview in itself and as one with huge, immense impression at the global. it's a booklet that may be welcomed through considering Christians, who frequently think beleaguered through the forces of modernity and infrequently locate it difficult to guard their very own ideals.

Show description

Read Online or Download Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven--and How We Can Regain It PDF

Best religious history books

Islam at War: A History

The be aware Islam potential Peace, yet for almost 1,400 years its adherents have waged war—frequently at the grandest and such a lot profitable scales in historical past. This ebook introduces a few of Islam's maximum army figures and analyzes major occasions which are shaping the trendy international. Nafziger and Walton aspect the wealthy and numerous army histories of dozens of empires, international locations, tribes, clans, and peoples.

An End to Enmity: Paul and the "Wrongdoer" of Second Corinthians

An finish to Enmity casts mild upon the shadowy determine of the culprit of moment Corinthians through exploring the social and rhetorical conventions that ruled friendship, enmity and reconciliation within the Greco-Roman international. The e-book places ahead a singular speculation concerning the id of the offender and the character of his offence opposed to Paul.

New York Glory: Religions in the City

Is big apple a post-secular urban? monstrous immigration and cultural adjustments have created an more and more advanced social panorama during which non secular existence performs a dynamic position. but the value of religion's impression on New York's social lifestyles has long gone unacknowledged. manhattan Glory gathers jointly for the 1st time the simplest learn on faith in modern long island urban.

Extra info for Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven--and How We Can Regain It

Sample text

Science” in the modern sense of investigation of the physical world through mathematics and empiricism (as opposed to “science” in the sense of general knowledge) is not attested before 1725. Galileo invented the telescope and discovered the large moons of Jupiter and the transit of Venus; he is also known for his condemnation to house arrest by the Roman Inquisition and the censorship (after the initial celebration) of his works. ”52 Galileo’s thought began the separation of theology and science—or, to use less anachronistic terms, of natural theology from natural philosophy.

In fact, that is precisely what is miraculous in the Eucharistic service. The change in essence at the consecration was amazing to essentialists. A pine tree could not acquire the essence of a rug; bread could not acquire the essence of flesh—unless, of course, by a miracle. For essentialists, such a transformation was, however extremely unlikely, possible. For materialists, it would be impossible. What this meant for heaven is that in a world of essences, there is an essential eternal heaven whose physical attributes—or in this case lack of physical attributes— is absolutely irrelevant.

The bodie, that after corruption it may rise to greater glorie. The soule, that it being fully sanctified, may immediately, after departure from the bodie, be transported into the kingdom of heaven. . 16 Donne’s “Resurrection” (1633) linked immortality of the soul with resurrection of the body: If in thy little booke my name thou enroule, Flesh in that long sleep is not putrefied, But made that there, of which, and for which ‘twas; Nor can by other meanes be glorified. 17 The Protestant Reformation’s greatest shift was in the underlying, basic approach to authority.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.18 of 5 – based on 12 votes