New Heaven: Death, Human Destiny, and the Kingdom of God

Harvey Cox is one of America’s great public theologians of the past fifty years. In many bestselling books he has written on matters of religion and faith for a popular audience, including on secularism and belief, world religions, Jewish-Christian dialogue, liberation theology, Pentecostalism, Jesus, and biblical interpretation. In his new book he explores the question that underlies all religion: what is the point of life that ends in death? What are the different ways we think about the afterlife? What are we actually talking about when we talk about heaven? Interestingly, this is not a subject of great preoccupation in the Gospels. Jesus was concerned primarily with the Kingdom of God—about conforming the present world to the values and principles of God’s love and justice. How this has gravitated toward concern with “life after death” is one of the topics covered here. Cox draws on personal stories, including his youthful work as an assistant his uncle, an undertaker, approaches to death in other cultures and religions; and his own reflections on mortality.