As old as time itself, the promise of heaven continues to enchant our spirits and define our lives on Earth. It is also the source of inspiration for many of the world's greatest poems and writings. Thankfully, editor Carol Zaleski and husband Philip Zaleski (editor of Parabola magazine and The Best Spiritual Writing series) realized the potential for this sweeping and beautiful anthology. Drawing from ancient myths, classic poems, everyday prayers, and even some high comedy, this collection manages to straddle the balance between reverence and irreverence. For example, reverence seeps from the stunning "Iroquois Mother's Lament" recorded in the 19th century as she speaks over the body of her son, promising a reunion in the home of their maker. Irreverence comes in tasteful waves, such as in an excerpt from Mark Twain's Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, where the frustrated captain has difficulty mastering his blasted wings.

Despite the variety of voices, traditions, and time periods represented (a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale stands beside a passage from South India's "Bhagavata Puraba"), the anthology hangs together, mostly due to the editors' thoughtful introductions and organization. Naturally, readers will come to this book with high expectations, but like its subject matter, The Book of Heaven delivers all that it promises. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly
Carol Zaleski, a professor of religion at Smith College, and husband Philip, editor of Harper San Francisco's Best Spiritual Writing series, have compiled a remarkable collection of writings about heaven. Heaven, the Zaleskis tell us, has belonged to theologians and priests; the Bible, ancient Greco-Roman myths and other sacred texts all tell the faithful something about what happens after death. But artists and literati have shaped our picture of heaven no less than the clergy, with Botticelli, Donne and others painting pictures and writing poems about the pearly gates. Nor is heaven just a Western fixation--Hindus, Confucians and Buddhists have also written, painted and sung about the afterlife. The editors draw on all these traditions, taking the reader from the opening of Dante's Paradise to Carl Jung's description of a near-death experience, from Cardinal Newman's discussion of the Virgin Mary's ascension into heaven to the Sutra of the Land of Bliss. Readers who find the likes of Newman too serious will enjoy Mark Twain's mocking Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. If those selections are somewhat predictable, other readings are less familiar. Among the Zaleskis' more unusual finds is an excerpt from the chemist Robert Hare's 1858 book Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations, Demonstrating the Existence of Spirits and Their Communion with Mortals, in which Hare, assisted by a medium, summoned the spirits of George and Martha Washington and Henry Clay; the spirits then gave Hare an insider's view of the heavens. Regardless of how readers envision the hereafter, they are sure to enjoy this delightful collection in the here and now. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Professors of religion at Smith College and authors of long experience, the Zaleskis have assembled a beautiful anthology reflecting an extraordinary diversity of opinion on the reality and experience of the blessed state of the afterlife, from the Bible to Pygmy hymns. The delights are perhaps the unexpected testimonies--e.g., Robert Hare's "Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations" and an extract from one of Julian Barnes's novels. Highly recommended; essential for most collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
In every culture, in every epoch, human beings have yearned for heaven--the kingdom of God, abode of the elect, fount of enlightenment, mirror of hopes and desires. Now, in The Book of Heaven, Carol and Philip Zaleski provide the first wide-ranging anthology of writings about heaven, drawing from scriptures, myths, epics, poems, prayers, sermons, novels, hymns and spells, to illuminate a vast spectrum of beliefs about the world beyond. The Zaleskis present a fascinating array of ancient and modern, solemn and comic meditations, as they explore such topics as the often treacherous journey to heaven, heaven's colorful inhabitants, its topographic features, and its moral architecture. The emphasis is on great literature, with substantial excerpts taken from classic works such as The Iliad, St. Augustine's Confessions, The Prose Edda, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, and The Pilgrim's Progress; from sacred texts such as the Bible, the Upanishads, the Qu'ran, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the Bhagavata Purana; and from diverse writers such as Plato, Cicero, Thomas Traherne, Henry Fielding, Emanuel Swedenborg, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Hans Christian Andersen, William James, G. K. Chesterton, C. G. Jung, Rupert Brooke, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Selections highlight both the diversity and the universality of reflection on heaven: the sacred chants of the Buddhist Pure Land sutras reverberate alongside John Donne's holy sonnets, and Shaker songs complement Jewish mystical hymns. From the words of Sioux holy man Black Elk, to a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, to humorous musings by Mark Twain and fantastical passages from The Chronicles of Narnia, this rich anthology will deepen our understanding of the myriad ways in which human beings have envisioned heaven.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In every culture, in every epoch, human beings have yearned for heaven - the kingdom of God, abode of the elect, fount of enlightenment, mirror of hopes and desires. Now, in The Book of Heaven, Carol and Philip Zaleski provide the first wide-ranging anthology of writings about heaven, drawing from scriptures, myths, epics, poems, prayers, sermons, novels, hymns and spells, to illuminate a vast spectrum of beliefs about the world beyond.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Professors of religion at Smith College and authors of long experience, the Zaleskis have assembled a beautiful anthology reflecting an extraordinary diversity of opinion on the reality and experience of the blessed state of the afterlife, from the Bible to Pygmy hymns. The delights are perhaps the unexpected testimonies--e.g., Robert Hare's "Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations" and an extract from one of Julian Barnes's novels. Highly recommended; essential for most collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Marvin Barrett - Parabola

The anthology, when it properly performs its task, opens a door for us to go through. The Zaleskis have flung that door wide, whetted our appetite, piqued our curiosity, and provided a jumping-off place. And when we exhaust the literary sources (however unlikely), there are the other arts: the sublime epiphanies of a Bosch or a Messaien or even the grimcrack revelations of Hollywood, Broadway, or Tin Pan Alley, which have been known to come surprisingly close to the mark. Heaven, it would seem, has neither boundaries nor barriers.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING