Afterlife argues that proper conduct was believed essential for determining one's post-mortem judgment from the earliest periods in ancient Egypt and Greece. affects one's afterlife fate. Dramatists and demonstrates that post-mortem reward and retribution, based on one's conduct, is already found in Homer. Pythagoreanism and Orphism further develop the afterlife beliefs that will have such enormous impact on Plato and later Christianity. for their understanding of virtues and vices that have afterlife consequences. both societies are compared. the elite: the king in Egypt's Pyramid Texts and the heroes in Homeric Greece. Nevertheless, we show that, from the earliest times, both societies believed that the gods, primarily Maat in Egypt and Dike in Greece, were responsible for the proper ordering of the cosmos and anyone's violations of that order would reap the direst consequence--the loss of a beneficent afterlife.

Proto-orthodox Christianity started with St. Paul, but the religion had its genesis with neither Paul nor Jesus. In Christianity, we investigate the 5000-year history and development of what became today's Faith. doctrinally divergent variants of the Christian faith exist. delves deeper into their predecessors to find the roots of the concepts that would enter into those Christianities found today. resolving the question: Was there ever a single Christianity? We will traverse the remaining centuries looking at the middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment and contemporary ecumenism. for the use of ample figures (each worth a thousand words) in the form of maps, tables, graphs, and timelines. Encapsulations and independent essays of topics are included that give concise summaries of key subject matter. Although it is wished that every word be thoroughly studied and digested, skimmers can get the gist of the book's contents from these encapsulations and figures alone.

Proto-orthodox Christianity started with St. Paul, but the religion had its genesis with neither Paul nor Jesus. In Christianity, we investigate the 5000-year history and development of what became today's Faith. doctrinally divergent variants of the Christian faith exist. delves deeper into their predecessors to find the roots of the concepts that would enter into those Christianities found today. resolving the question: Was there ever a single Christianity? We will traverse the remaining centuries looking at the middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment and contemporary ecumenism. for the use of ample figures (each worth a thousand words) in the form of maps, tables, graphs, and timelines. Encapsulations and independent essays of topics are included that give concise summaries of key subject matter. Although it is wished that every word be thoroughly studied and digested, skimmers can get the gist of the book's contents from these encapsulations and figures alone.

Afterlife argues that proper conduct was believed essential for determining one's post-mortem judgment from the earliest periods in ancient Egypt and Greece. affects one's afterlife fate. Dramatists and demonstrates that post-mortem reward and retribution, based on one's conduct, is already found in Homer. Pythagoreanism and Orphism further develop the afterlife beliefs that will have such enormous impact on Plato and later Christianity. for their understanding of virtues and vices that have afterlife consequences. both societies are compared. the elite: the king in Egypt's Pyramid Texts and the heroes in Homeric Greece. Nevertheless, we show that, from the earliest times, both societies believed that the gods, primarily Maat in Egypt and Dike in Greece, were responsible for the proper ordering of the cosmos and anyone's violations of that order would reap the direst consequence--the loss of a beneficent afterlife.