throws
the church the afterlife and the fate of the soul papers read at the 2007 summer meeting and the 2008 winter meeting of the ecclesiastical history society
the impact of belief in the afterlife on the churchs history and evolution and the manifold ways in which it has impacted on and been reflected in the lives expectations and aspirations of christians across the centuries is the central theme of this volume . by considering the whole chronological and geographic spread of the churchs experience these essays demonstrate the current excitement of scholarly study of the afterlife and they frequently question such deeply held assumptions as the late development of purgatory in christian thought the divorce between the living and the dead in the western tradition after the sixteenth century or the importance of post death salvation in successful modern evangelism . peter clarke is lecturer in history at southampton university ; tony claydon is professor of early modern history at bangor university .