THE ENTANGLEMENT

“And in a lot of ways, the majority of our modern depictions of heaven are exactly that: human. Over centuries, the imagery of heaven has developed as theologians, artists, and laypeople attempted to understand the mysterious idea of life after death. From mere ascension to a place in the stars to Greek ideas of the Empyrean, we attempted to give heaven a true location or visual aspect for us to understand. The Renaissance and medieval eras, with their beautiful paintings and great literature contributions, also stuffed baggage and transported it to our present times. Icons or imagery in order to understand a truth are important to the faith and yet can also lead astray. Once blended with modern culture, heaven became an idealized, almost American dream-esque idea where your deepest desires come true. Suffice it to say, this couldn’t be further from the biblical idea of a new heavens and new earth, in which the afterlife is depicted as a re-creation of all things according to God’s desires and is very “earthy” as opposed to “out there-y.””