About Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 29, 2011)
A groundbreaking and accessible history of heaven—from the earliest biblical conceptions of the afterlife to the theologians who frame our understandings to the convictions and perceptions of everyday people.
The desire for a celestial afterlife is universal. It is as old as the Bible itself. While there are many notions of what exactly heaven is and how we get there, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all agree that heaven is God’s home. Drawing on history and popular culture, biblical research and everyday beliefs, Heaven offers a new understanding of one of the most cherished—and shared—ideals of spiritual life.
About Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller is the religion editor for Newsweek. She is the recipient of numerous journalism prizes, including the 2009 Wilbur Award for Outstanding Magazine Article for her December 2008 cover story “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” During the 2008 presidential campaign, she interviewed Barack Obama about his faith and covered the controversy over his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. She has written cover stories on subjects ranging from Islam in America to the new evangelicalism to the Mormonism of Mitt Romney. She has a regular column in Newsweek and on Newsweek.com, and in conjunction with The Washington Post, she helped to launch the religion website On Faith. Her first book is Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (Harper).
Miller graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in English before starting her career in journalism at the Harvard Business Review. In 1987, she moved to The New Yorker, and in 1992 became a senior editor at Self. From 1993 to 2000, Miller was a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal, where she established the religion beat. She wrote front-page articles on Pentecostalism, church endowments, and the nascent world of religion on the Internet. Miller came to Newsweek in 2000 as the magazine’s society editor, overseeing all coverage in the areas of health, medicine, lifestyle, religion, education, and parenting. In 2006, she became religion editor, allowing her to write full time about the ways in which spirituality and religion intersect with politics and culture.
A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Miller now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter.
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Lisa’s Tour Stops
Monday, April 4th: Presenting Lenore
Tuesday, April 5th: A Church for Starving Artists
Wednesday, April 6th: Quotidian Grace
Thursday, April 14th: Pastoralia
Wednesday, April 20th: Diamonds in the Sky With Lucy
Thursday, April 21st: Shuck and Jive
Monday, April 25th: change therapy
Tuesday, April 26th: Silver & Grace
Thursday, April 28th: Mom’s Mustard Seeds