Heaven and Hell, Bart D. Ehrman

Heaven and Hell:  A history of the afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman is a book that I saw reviewed somewhere, but cannot remember where.  I have had a fascination with the concept of hell for a long time and so books like this tend to catch my eye.

Started: 5/24/2020

Completed: 5/26/2020

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I never understood Hebrew poetry.  I assumed that the lack of rhyme and meter was due to an effort to translate literally and that the Hebrew would be more beautiful.  Not so.  Hebrew poetry uses parallelism (two lines espouse the same or contrasting ideas).  That is pretty cool and a type of poetry that I understand much better.  I love learning stuff like that.

The book opens with a good survey of information about how early Jewish populations and the populations with which the Jews interacted viewed the afterlife.  This was a good foundation for further analysis.  The review of the Torah and Old Testament, more broadly, also seemed reasonable and consistent.

The latter part of the book became, "here's how I interpret the Bible."  That is OK, but the author states up front that he is not trying to shape beliefs or views--basically, let's just get the facts out.  His interpretation, however, is one-sided (maybe that is simply the right side, I don't pretend to know).  The author rarely mentions any possibility of inconsistency in his view while railing about other forms of inconsistency.  When he does (with the case of how to interpret Jesus' words to one of the thieves, the author makes clear how an interpretation inconsistent with his views makes more sense, but then just moves on.

Before the book is over, almost every format of afterlife has been considered ranging from reincarnation to everyone being saved.  I think it would be better to think of this as a biased survey.  The author pretty clearly thinks the afterlife is unlikely, but attempts to provide an opportunity for everyone to take a look at all the different varieties of afterlife available along with the arguments against pretty much all of them.

This is less a history and more of a Judea-Christian inspection of the afterlife.  It seems to come from a philosophical perspective, but philosophy seems to be the wrong tool when looking at religious matters.  Philosophy thrives on understanding, but religion thrives on belief.  Not exactly oil and water, but it is exceedingly difficult to find the overlap.  There comes a time when religion quotes:

• "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
• "But the righteous shall live by faith." Habakuk 2:4
• "As for those who fear their lord unseen, for them is forgiveness and a great reward." Quran 67:12

I'm sure that there are others.