After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

481 Pages·2009·6.82 MB·English

by  John Casey

After Lives
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After Lives
A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory
JOHN CASEY
Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge
1
2009
3
OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Casey,John,1939–
AfterLives:aguidetoheaven,hell,andpurgatory/JohnCasey.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.(p.).
ISBN978–0–19–509295–0
1. Futurelife—Historyofdoctrines. I. Title.
BL535.C372009
220’.3—dc22 2009007204
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
In memory of my parents
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Contents
Acknowlegments, ix
Prologue: StephenDedalus’sHell,1
PART I DarkFutures
1 After Lives,13
2 Egypt,23
3 MesopotamiaandIsrael,43
4 GreeceandRome,65
5 TheChristianBeginnings,103
6 Dante: Inferno,147
7 Predestination:AugustinetoCalvinandBeyond,167
8 TheDeclineofHell,193
PART II Purgatory
9 Rome’sHappiestInspiration?,225
viii CONTENTS
PART III Heaven
10 Heaven: Egypt,Mesopotamia,Israel,245
11 BodiesFleshlyandSpiritual,269
12 Dante:Paradiso,281
13 CelestialPleasures:RenaissanceandReformationHeavens,293
14 HeavenlySpeculations,321
15 Heaven SeenandHeard:Swedenborg,337
16 WithEasyIntercoursePassToandFro,357
17 ScoringinHeaven,381
Epilogue, 401
Notes, 405
Bibliography, 441
Index, 452
Acknowledgments
Iamgratefultoseveralfriendswhoreadearlierdraftsofthebook—
PaulBinski,ColinBurrow,andRuthScurr,whoreaditinfull,and
PaulFooteandCallyHammond,whoreaditinpart.JeremyDimmick
gaveveryusefuldirectionsaboutreadingattheverybeginningofthe
project.EdBrambleytookcareoftheillustrations.
Oxford University Press were heroically patient during the
lapseoftimebetweentheircommissioningthebookandmy
finallygettingdowntoworkonit.Iamgratefultomyoriginal
commissioningeditorforthat;tomypresenteditor,CynthiaRead,
forextremelyhelpfulcomments;andtothereadertowhomthe
manuscriptwassentforconstructive,indeedinvaluable,
suggestions.Myverywarmthanksgotomymagnificentcopy
editor,MarySutherland,whoseintelligenceandalertattentionto
detail,combinedwithanunerringsenseofthebookasawhole,
madeherapleasuretoworkwith.Thank-youaswelltoJoellyn
Ausanka,whoablyshepherdedthebookthroughtheproduction
process.
My greatest debt—obvious and here warmly acknowledged—
istothosemanywriterswhosefundamentalworkopenedpaths
intoareashithertounknowntome(whichincludesjustaboutall
thewriterscitedonancientEgypt)andintimatedastructurefor
thebook,butespeciallyAlanBernstein,S.G.F.Brandon,Piero
Camporesi,andColleenMcDannellandBernardLang.