Life after Death

Stephen Cave In a way the Segal book is the perfect accompaniment to reading Gilgamesh, because he so brilliantly puts this into a broader context. This book covers the ancient history of the near East, and the origins of the Abrahamic tradition of Western religion up until the beginnings of Islam. We tend to see religions as very monolithic, having a set doctrine that sprang from the earth or was handed down from the heavens. Segal is extremely good at showing us how the history of religion is the history of humans encountering each other and the common sets of problems among different traditions, and... (Source)