Locating heaven in antiquity and today

One feature of antiquity which can be hard for modern readers to make sense of is ancient three-tier cosmology. This article explores this difficulty and responses to it, focusing particularly on Rudolf Bultmann’s articulation of myth and demythologization in relation to the location of heaven in the New Testament. While some scholars suggest that Jewish and Christian writers in the late Second Temple period had already demythologized their cosmology, there is evidence in this literature of cosmological realism with respect to heaven’s vertical location “up there.” Moreover, scholars sometimes “remythologize” heaven using language of alternative realities, dimensions, or universes. Such language vindicates the importance of myth-making and suggests that demythologization is neither necessary nor sufficient. Further, it suggests that we instinctively reach for language at the edge of our observable cosmos to articulate the transcendence-with-immanence of the location of God’s abode.