Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition

This illuminating deep dive by religious studies professor Ehrman (Heaven and Hell) examines the roots of Christian views on the afterlife. Ehrman studies the cultural contexts in which Christian afterlife stories developed and posits that the stories “emphasize what matters in life, providing insight into the purpose, meaning, and goals of human existence so as to encourage certain ways of being and living in the world.” The author looks back at progenitors of the Christian narratives, including Odysseus’s and Aeneas’s descents into Hades and early apocryphal Jewish texts such as the “Book of Watchers” and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah. Ehrman focuses his study on four noncanonical early Christian texts, explicating how the narratives impart Christian ethics and urge non-Christians to convert by threatening such hellish fates as being “confined in a narrow place, ringed by fire, and forced to gnaw their tongues.” By analyzing these narratives in the context of ancient Christians’ world, lived experiences, and culture, Ehrman revives their “priorities, beliefs, practices, and histories,” crafting a broad but detailed account of early Christian notions of heaven, hell, and purgatory. The result is an edifying origin story for contemporary Christian conceptions of the afterlife. (Apr.)