A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Well-known for his historical accounts of Satan and hell, Jeffrey Burton Russell here explores the brighter side of eternity: heaven. Dispensing with the cliché images of goodness that can make even heaven seem unbearable, the author stimulates our imagination with a history of how the joy of paradise has been conceived by writers, philosophers, and artists for whom heaven was an imminent reality. Russell not only explores concepts found among the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans as well as early and medieval Christians, but also addresses the intellectual problems heaven poses: how does time “pass” in eternity? is heaven a place or a state? who is in and who is not? what happens to the body and soul between death and Judgment Day? Russell stresses that the best way to approach the logic-defying concept of a place occupying neither space nor time is through poetry and paradox, and through the visions of such mystics as Bernard, Julian of Norwich, and Eckhart.
After the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, the most sublime and encompassing portrait of heaven to date has come not from a theologian but from a poet—Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy. Russell’s history of heaven culminates in a lively analysis of how Dante described the glories of the indescribable. The unsurpassed images of light, movement, and community that Dante uses so skillfully to convey the presence of God are rooted in the Jewish picture of heaven as a garden or court and in the Greek picture of the Elysian Fields.
Using current scholarly insights together with a vast store of knowledge gathered from the past, Russell takes the idea of heaven as valid and important in itself—something to be understood from the point of view of those believing in it. His very use of language immerses us in the thoughts of those who have sought heaven and provides rich material for contemplation.
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No brief review can begin to do justice to the rich complexity and subtlety of Russell's thought. . . [T]he book testifies to his exceptional learning and intellectual sophistication, [and] it is written with the utmost consideration for the readers who are not scholars. . . . Russell offers us Christian scholarship at its best, for, without ever falling into condescension, he clearly explains even the most difficult and unfamiliar terms and concepts, and he invites even the uninitiated reader to share his evident delight in exploring the many facets of this pre-eminently important concept.
—Christianity Today
At minimum, it is the most rigorous modern study of the various strains of Western tradition that culminate in [Dante's] Paradiso. But its introductory chapter goes beyond that to sketch out an apologia for passionate heavenly belief. In effect, Russell tries to re-establish the honor of the Christian mystical tradition. . . . Like Dante's, Russell's paradise is deeply God-oriented.
—David Van Biema, Time
- Title: A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence
- Author: Jeffrey Burton Russell
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Print Publication Date: 1997
- Pages: 256
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Resource ID: LLS:HSTHVNSNGNGSLNC
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-06-18T15:03:54Z
Jeffrey Burton Russell (PhD, Emory University) was a history professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1979-1998 where he is now a professor of history, emeritus. He also taught at the University of New Mexico, Harvard, University of California in Riverside, Notre Dame, and California State University, Sacramento. Russell has published numerous books and articles on his area of expertise, the history of theology. Early in his academic career, Russell was honored as a Fulbright Fellow, Harvard Junior Fellow, and Guggenheim Fellow.