The History of Immortality
Udødelighetens historie
‘Do you really want to live forever?’ With this immortal lyric from the 1980’s as soundtrack, religious historian Dag Øistein Endsjø goes in search of eternal life.
The dream of immortality is possibly as old as humanity itself. One of the few things we all have in common is the knowledge that we shall all die. The alternative appears as simple as it is unachievable. Is it possible to stop our bodies from changing and to preserve them for ever? What would happen if time lost its power over us? What really distinguishes Jesus’ resurrection from the zombies who waken to life in “The Walking Dead”?
The History of Immortality will not give you the prescription for eternal life. Nor does it contain any irrefutable evidence that immortality is possible. What it does offer, however, is a wide-ranging, informative and entertaining account of humanity’s engagement with life’s most central question: What happens to us when we die, and what we might be able to do to avoid it?
