The Great Illusion? On the History of Heaven
Alister McGrath on heavenly visions throughout the ages.
Heaven intrigues, consoles and inspires. Was it not Barbara Castle who urged us to build a New Jerusalem in the post-war period? The imagery she used drew on a rich vein, drawn from the Christian tradition, which had the capacity to inspire and encourage – even if, in this case, the ‘New Jerusalem’ turned out to be little more than the sprawling housing estates of the 1950s. Politicians and artists have found such images to be immensely stimulating and creative for many centuries.
On a May morning, possibly in 1362, a poet, weary with wandering, lay down on a grassy bank, close to the Malvern Hills. The gentle babbling of the nearby brook and the soft radiance of the late spring sun made him drowsy, and he fell asleep. He ‘began to dream a marvellous dream’, in which he was transported to another more wonderful realm, far removed from the war-ravaged, plague-ridden and politically corrupt England that he knew.
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