A study of journeys to the afterlife from multicultural narratives. I wanted to stay with this but for a layman the minutiae bogged me down. Many of Ehrman’s other books are more concise and easier to read.

thank you to NetGalley and Yale University Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This was the first book I've read from Ehrman and overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. He comprehensively explains the influence that various ancient and religious texts have on Christian beliefs in Hell/the afterlife and offers his own analysis on what led to the most basic belief that there are two versions of the afterlife; spoiler alert, it's probably because scribes needed their God to be “just” so they made some editing to reflect their narrative.

Overall, I enjoyed the thought provoking nature of the book and am excited to seek out more of this authors work!

A spiralling look through many different views and ideas of the afterlife throughout history and culture — engrossing and richly narrated, this is a well-researched journey.

Journeys to Heaven and Hell by Bart D. Ehrman is a study about heaven and hell and how our views of heaven and hell were influenced by classics like the Odyssey and the Aeneid. This book also includes the views of heaven and hell from early Jewish writings and apocryphal Christian stories. I found this book to be extremely thorough and very well-researched and annotated, but it was a little too deep for me. I especially enjoyed this passage towards the end of the book: "Delving into the ancient Christian afterlife journeys means exploring this imagination in the minds, or at least the words, of others--other authors, editors, scribes, and even, before all that, oral storytellers. But these imaginations never come in or out of a vacuum. They come in relation to the world and lived experience. They come in relation to history and culture. They come in connection with other people, their thoughts, views, perspectives, commitments, priorities, beliefs, practices, and histories." Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged. He examines how fundamental social experiences of the early Christian communities molded the conceptions of the afterlife that eventuated into the accepted doctrines of heaven, hell, and purgatory. Drawing on Greek and Roman epic poetry, early Jewish writings such as the Book of Watchers, and apocryphal Christian stories including the Acts of Thomas, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Apocalypse of Peter, Ehrman demonstrates that ancient tours of the afterlife promoted reflection on matters of ethics, faith, ambition, and life’s meaning, the fruit of which has been codified into Christian belief today.

What will happen in the afterlife? Is there any heaven or hell? What will we, humans, be after our deaths in the earth?
I keep on thinking these thoughts and then I grab this book. The number of researches that the author conducted must be enormous. I enjoy this book so much. It gives me more understanding and knowledge about the topic. After all, humans need the truth.
Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this book!

I am very conflicted about how I feel about this book. It is clear that Ehrman put a lot of research into this book, but I felt like it fell flat in many areas. The writing was boring.

There's a good bit of interesting material in Bart Ehrman's Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition. He opens with early Greek and Roman depictions of hell (and sometimes paradise), moves on to early Christian texts, then finishes by discussing the issue of several texts' positions on whether salvation will be all-inclusive or by invitation only. Whether one practices a faith or not, there's a lot to chew on here in terms of the best goals and values to govern one's life—and one can spend a good bit of time pondering what the social norms and expectations might have been in societies that embraced different versions of these texts..

The problem I had with the text was that it fell into an odd betwixt and between space in terms of its readership. Much of the first three chapters felt written for a non-scholarly audience, despite Ehrman's tendency to quote texts in Greek or Latin.

Then in chapter four, Ehrman's discussion moves on to minutae that are hard for a lay reader to follow, particularly if that reader doesn't have access to the texts Ehrman is discussing (an Ethiopian apocalypse, two very brief Greek fragments of that text, and later, related texts). At this point he backs up his arguments with detailed charts examining textual similarities and differences in an attempt to determine which is based on the earliest version of that narrative, and which bits are emendations or deliberate omissions. If you're a scholar of early Christianity, you may find his explanation of methodology and his survey of earlier work in the field worthwhile, but it doesn't make compelling reading for the uninitiated, who aren't familiar with the texts and can't place the specific bits of text included in the charts within the larger context of the documents they appear in.

Chapter six, the final chapter, returns to some of the more accessible issues featured in chapters one through three—in this instance the development of explanations for the time Jesus spent between execution and resurrection. Did he visit hell? If he did, did he enter it as teacher or as irresistably godly force? Did he save all hell's residents or just a chosen few? The answers to those questions are significant not just for individual Christians of the time, but also for the faith itself during its early years, when conversions seemed to come more easily when stories of the eternal punishments of hell played a central role, rather than the blessings of heaven.

If you're a scholar of early Christianity, you know better than I do whether this book will interest you. If you're a lay reader who dabbles in the subject, you'll find interesting material here, but I strongly recommend giving yourself permission to skip the sections/chapters that don't speak clearly to you.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

I've struggled with finishing this book as well as writing a review for it. Firstly, I wanted to read this because the first couple of chapters are essentially a thesis I wanted to write at University (comparing journeys to hell in Homer and Virgil). These chapters are amazing and so much fun to read for that reason.

Where I was slightly turned off from this title was that for the Christian and Jewish texts I didn't feel like there was enough excerpts from the original language, which - granted - is probably a niche preference and won't hinder anyone elses enjoyment of this. But as these texts are less known I would have wanted a richer textual background for readers themselves to compare and consider the linguistic aspect of these texts. That would probably have made it less reader friendly however, so I can understand why this wasn't an option.

That said, I do think the text is quite accessible to readers who are interested in these texts but are less interested, or not versed in, classical languages.

At chapter 3 the book passes into the Christian tradition which, fine is in the title, but when the main point is a large "Journeys to Heaven and Hell", I wanted a longer discussion on these journeys before getting more to the tradition and effects on ethics part of it. I felt a bit cheated when it seemed over too soon. Again, this is a personal preference and may not be a problem for other readers.

Chapters 1-2 were still five-stars for me, the rest... not terribly interesting. Possibly I have something of a bias against Ehrman, having read several of his books already and feeling like I know his style and where his points and conclusions are going already, so I just couldn't invest myself in the portions on the early Christian tradition. I don't feel like I trust him as a source there, based on other material.

All in all, this is interesting but beyond the first couple of chapters it just wasn't for me. I do kind of want to read it again and just consider the portions I liked, and those I disliked, but realistically I know I probably won't.

Very thankful for Yale University Press and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this title, all opinions are mine.

In 2020 Ehrman released Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. He examined these concepts, chronicled their development, and pointed toward how a ending gives meaning.

Journeys to Heaven and Hell focuses on these ideas in early Christianity and their development from sources such as the Odyssey, Aeneid, Jewish writings, and Christian apocrypha.

He shows how early Christianity’s ideas of the afterlife weren’t static, nor were they isolated from the culture around them. The tours Ehrman details touch on many themes that connect the past to the very things society is struggling with today.

Thanks to NetGalley and Yale University Press for an ARC of this book.

Bart Ehrman's "Journeys to Heaven and Hell" is a literary masterpiece. I am always so impressed with Ehrman. Ehrman had many people help with the research and writing of the book. In the Acknowledgments section he writes, “I asked well-established experts in various fields to read appropriate sections for suggestions and comments. They did so with enthusiasm, both improving the book and saving me from numerous faux pas.” Additionally, he had experts in New Testament studies look it over. He also had “five seasoned scholars with deep expertise in the broad range of this material generously read and shared their knowledge in comments on the entire manuscript, making numerous suggestions to improve the work and help me save face.” Ehrman also had graduate students and faculty from UNC and Duke engage critically with selections from the book.

Why am I impressed? Because he is modeling how to write in community. Instead of some authors who write in a very small vacuum, Ehrman is inviting pushback, challenge, and in some ways accountability with his final product by writing in community. An intellectually honest book on the topics of heaven and hell demands nothing less. That is not to say everything he writes on the topic will be perfect knowledge. I am not that naive. However, I would be more interested in his work on the topic than someone who solely stays in the confines of the biblical text and is writing primarily from his denominations hermeneutical grid.

His exquisite ability to expand the horizon's of thought on heaven and hell and interweave a surplus of historical data is unmatched. Any serious student of the afterlife needs to read this book!

This is a fascinating look at an obscure, complex subject. Thoughts about the afterlife occurred in various traditions in the ancient world, and these interpretations and speculations influenced each other. Among the intriguing topics covered is a paradox whereby Christian believers are supposed to forego sensual pleasures in this world in order to enjoy them more fully in the next.

Firmly grounded in the classical tradition and a thorough exploration of concepts of the afterlife from the Jewish sources, this work expands our knowledge of early Christianity and its theological and cultural development of heaven and hell

Ordered for Erma Wood Carlson Library at Lee College.

Bart Ehrman is one of those scholars that I feel has been with me on each step of my journey of studying religion in academia. I remember using his Old Testament textbook in my first college OT class and I've read many of his books over the years since. Journeys to Heaven and Hell is another solid addition to Ehrman's canon.

Ehrman does a remarkable job of jumping into the important task of tracking the development of the ideas around heaven and hell. These are not new avenues of research, to be sure, but Ehrman brings his focus and wit and puts them to good use in helping make sense of these topics. I think the strongest portion of this book is the way that Ehrman makes an argument for the impact of Roman and Greek poetry on the development of the ideas of heaven and hell and how these are still visible in the modern imagery around both.

Ultimately, I think this book will probably not be hugely eye-opening to most scholars but it will definitely be eye opening to those outside academia who maybe haven't encountered such a comprehensive exploration of these topics before.

Journeys to Heaven and Hell is an exploration of early Christian writings and Greek mythologies and what their stories teach about life on earth. The author argues that these writings were instructional, meant to be used to promote certain values, beliefs, morals, ideals, and lifestyles. The author does not shy away from the imaginative and sometimes fantastical elements that exist in these stories, but instead suggests these were used as lessons and critiques of culture and morale. With society believing less and less in an afterlife- either in heaven or hell, what does it tell us about our society and where it is going? This is an existential truth that closes the book, offering much food for thought about the meaning and purpose of life. Journeys to Heaven and Hell by Bart. D. Ehrman shifts away from the traditional view that stories about the afterlife were used as scare tactics, rather, he proposes that the afterlife offers a guide on how to live a more purposeful and honourable life on earth...how ironic.