Heaven: A Traveller’s Guide to the Undiscovered Country. Peter Stanford

       HEAVEN

      A TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO

      THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

      PETER STANFORD

       DEDICATION

       To my mother, Mary Catherine Stanford (1921–1998), in the hope that the very best of what follows may now be true for her

       and

      To my mother-in-law, Emily Celine Cross (1934–2001), who inspired me with her trust in God to believe that it could be.

       EPIGRAPH

       ‘The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns …’

      SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet (Act III, Scene 1)

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

List of Illustrations

Introduction

PART ONE Knowledge of Angels

1 Dust to Dust

Traveller’s Tales: 1

2 Come Back and Finish What You Started

3 But Not Life as We Know it

4 The Compensation Culture

       5 Fly Me to the Moon

       PART TWO And the Soul Goes Marching On

       6 Safe in My Garden

       Traveller’s Tales: 2

       7 Space Oddity

       8 Star-Man

       9 Tomorrow’s World

       10 If Paradise Was Half as Nice

       Traveller’s Tales: 3

       11 A Delectable Death

       12 Reach for the Sky

       PART THREE Above Us, Only Sky

       13 The Borderlands

       Traveller’s Tales: 4

       14 I Hear You Knocking

       15 Speaking Words of Wisdom?

       16 Man is What He Eats

       17 The Sound of Silence

       18 Through the Keyhole

       19 An Indian Summer

       20 A Village in Heaven

       Traveller’s Tales: 5

       21 But I’ve Never Been to Me

       Source Notes

       Index

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       Praise

       Other Works

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      Ascent of the Prophet Muhammad to Heaven by Aqa Mirak, 16th century.

       © British Library/Bridgeman Art Library

      Saint Augustine of Hippo. © Mary Evans Picture Library

      Saint Hildegard. © Mary Evans Picture Library

      Thomas Aquinas. © Mary Evans Picture Library

      Chartres Cathedral, West side. © The Bridgeman Art Library

      Land of Cockaigne by Pieter Brueghel. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. © The Bridgeman Art Library

      Detail from The Damned by Luca Signorelli. © Scala

      Dante portrait. © Scala

      Ascent