Issue 112 Heaven in the Christian Imagination

What's inside

Heaven’s fire department?

Modern American attitudes about heaven range from comforting to baffling

Rebecca Price Janney

“God’s love that moves the sun and other stars”

Christians in the early and medieval church gave us patterns that still govern how we think of heaven

Jeffrey Burton Russell

A garden, a city, a home, and a judgment

Heaven in Christian art and music

Jennifer C. Awes Freeman

Another stop on the glory train?

Christians have wrestled for years—sometimes with each other—over whether there might be a “precursor” to heaven

Jerry L. Walls

Heaven, Did you know?

Books, songs, art, poetry, and sermons that have helped us imagine the heavenly scene

the editors

Editor's note: Heaven

Christians have tried to express a beauty that is ultimately inexpressible

Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Getting ready for heaven

Hell may be the best God can do for those who don't care for heavenly things

Gary Black Jr.

A city set with pearls

A grieving narrator has a vision of his young daughter in heaven

Anonymous

New heaven, new earth

The tension between heaven above and new creation to come throughout church history

John Stackhouse

Till we reach the golden strand

Pilgrim’s Progress gave many generations of Christians a way to understand their journey to heaven

Edwin Woodruff Tait

Heaven Lost and Heaven Found

Ever since the Enlightenment, some thinkers have tried to “think away” heaven, but it is still going strong

Jeffrey Burton Russell

Singing our way home

Famous Christian hymns about heaven—and the hope for heaven—from the church fathers to our own day

The Editors and hymn writers through the ages

Can heaven wait?

Images of heaven in popular culture

The editors

Life after life after death

Christian History talks about the resurrection with N. T. Wright, author of Surprised by Hope

N. T. Wright

Heaven: Recommended resources

Learn more about the long history of Christian reflection on heaven and put today’s “heaven headlines” into context with resources recommended by CH editorial staff and this issue’s contributors

The editors
Issue 112

Christian History Magazine #112 - Heaven

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