Heaven in the American Imagination

Smith (Faith and the Presidency) is a historian, and he offers a historical survey of American views of heaven, from Puritan to postmodern, divvying up the centuries into a number of different eras that generated different conceptions of the afterlife (the First Great Awakening, slavery and the Civil War, etc.) His work is formidably footnoted; the good news is he has done meticulous homework. The bad news is his writing is hard to read; many sentences contain partial quotes to convey what a particular individual said. He argues that Jonathan Edwards, whose "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a classic sermon, actually preached more frequently on heaven than hell. But he is less original in his review of current ideas of heaven; that they reflect a culture that has substituted therapy for religion is a well-worn analysis. Readers curious about this eternally fascinating subject will do better with authors such as Lisa Miller. (June)