03184nam 22004454a 450 991080975720332120200520144314.0019534779X9780195347791(MiAaPQ)EBC7036372(CKB)24235116000041(MiAaPQ)EBC281165(Au-PeEL)EBL281165(CaPaEBR)ebr10160503(CaONFJC)MIL83847(OCoLC)935262373(EXLCZ)992423511600004120051123d2006 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierParadise mislaid how we lost heaven--and how we can regain it /Jeffrey Burton Russell1st ed.Oxford ;New York Oxford University Press2006x, 210 pIncludes bibliographical references (p. 185-193) and index.Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- CHAPTER 1 Shut and Open -- CHAPTER 2 Up -- CHAPTER 3 Enchantment -- CHAPTER 4 Ahead -- CHAPTER 5 Back -- CHAPTER 6 In and Out -- CHAPTER 7 Forward -- CHAPTER 8 Here -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.The Christian concept of heaven flourished for almost two millennia, but it has lost much of its power in the last hundred years. Indeed today even theologians tend to avoid the topic. But heaven has always been a central tenet of the Christian faith, writes Jeffrey Burton Russell. If there isno heaven, no resurrection of the dead, the entire Christian story makes no sense.In this stimulating book, Russell sets out to rehabilitate heaven by forcefully attacking a series of ideas that have made belief in heaven, not to mention belief in God, increasingly difficult for modern people. Russell provides elegant and persuasive refutations of arguments ranging from theidea that science has disproved the existence of the supernatural, to the notion that biblical criticism has emptied the scripture of meaning. Along the way, as Russell looks at the ideas of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Marx and Freud, and a host ofothers, he sheds light not only on the history of Christian thought, but on the process of secularization in the West. One by one, Russell refutes these anti-religious ideologies, pinpointing the deficiencies of their reasoning.Throughout the book, Russell invites the reader, whatever his or her beliefs, to take the concept of heaven seriously both as a worldview in itself and as one with enormous influence on the world. It is a book that will be welcomed by thinking Christians, who often feel beleaguered by theforces of modernity and sometimes find it hard to defend their own beliefs.HeavenHistory of doctrinesHeavenHistory of doctrines.236/.2409Russell Jeffrey Burton183628MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQ9910809757203321Paradise mislaid3948057UNINA