Chasing Immortality in World Religions - Softcover

Coulter-Harris, Deborah M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786497920 ISBN 13: 9780786497928

Publisher: McFarland & Co, 2016

Synopsis

Humans have been chasing immortality since the beginning of history, seeking answers to sickness and aging, death and the afterlife, and questioning the human condition. Analyzing ideas from ancient Sumer, Egypt, Greece and India, as well as the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, this study explores how early religious models influenced later beliefs about immortality, the afterlife, the human soul, resurrection, and reward and punishment. The author highlights shared teachings among the most influential religions and philosophies, concluding that humankind has not substantially changed its conceptions of immortality in 6,000 years. This continuity of belief may be due to chromosomal memory and cultural inheritance, or may represent a fundamental way of conceptualizing the afterlife to cope with mortality.

About this title

About the Author:

Deborah M. Coulter-Harris, Ph.D., a native of Massachusetts, currently teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Toledo, USA. A former officer and Middle East Political Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, she is the author of four books.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Co
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0786497920
• ISBN 13: 9780786497928
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216