2 of 2

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) painted his vision of heaven in the great City of God. He wrote the book as humanity's highest societal achievement, the Roman Empire, tottered on the brink of dissolution. Against this backdrop he turned his eyes upward to a kingdom whose splendor far surpassed that of the world beneath. In his Confessions, Augustine had insisted that "our heart does not rest until it rests in God." Now he painted heaven as one long embrace—an embrace of God, and an embrace of other people who love Christ.

Treasuring this vision of eternal communion and community, Christians ever since have looked forward to a time and a place where "the young women will dance for joy, and the men—old and young—will join in the celebration." So said Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet," who though he lived before the word "heaven" was first spoken, still insisted that he heard God say "I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing." (Jer. 31:13, NLT)

Chris Armstrong is associate editor of Christian History magazine. This article draws from Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang's Heaven: A History and Everett Ferguson's Encyclopedia of Early Christianity.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More Christian History, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

Divvying up the Most Sacred Place | Emotions have historically run high as Christians have staked their claims to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Aug. 2, 2002)

Legacy of an Ancient Pact | Why do Christians still chafe under restrictions in some Muslim nations? It all started with Umar (July 26, 2002)

Big Church Revival | Christian gyms and shopping malls may be new, but full-service megachurches are positively medieval. (July 19, 2002)

Phantom Saints | Juan Diego could soon join a long line of pious, exemplary, and quite possibly imaginary Catholic heroes. (July 12, 2002)

2002 Is Not 1789 | Before trying to figure out what the framers of the Constitution really thought, remember that they were from a wildly different country—the past (July 5, 2002)

Between Extremes | Church leaders didn't like Pelagius's ideas about free will, but they've never been able to avoid them completely (June 28, 2002)

Severe Success | Bernard of Clairvaux was a tough act to follow—yet thousands of Christians walked his path. (June 21, 2002)

Coming to America | Commentators who call proposed INS policies an unprecedented invasion of privacy forget what foreign visitors were asked 80 years ago, and why. (June 14, 2002)

When Pacifists Attack | 350 years ago, George Fox launched a powerful, peace-loving movement with an assault on established Christianity. (June 7, 2002)

Captive Christians | Views from inside Roman, English, and German prisons give a sense of how kidnapped missionaries might feel. (May 31, 2002)

Of Church, State, and Taxes | If you want to know what the establishment of religion looks like, check out church history, not American tax law. (May 17, 2002)

Mom, We Salute You | Mother's Day and Memorial Day were meant to go together. (May 10, 2002)

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

August (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46