What do the great world religions say about the soul and its ultimate destiny? This book, the third in Keith Ward's magisterial tetralogy on comparative religion, presents the beliefs of six major traditions about human nature, the way to immortality, and the end of the world. It offers a major philosophical analysis of beliefs in reincarnation and the resurrection of the body. Finally it constructs a Christian interpretation, in the light of scientific knowledge and a global religious worldview.

• 1: Introduction


• 2: Non-Dualism (Advaita Vedanta)


• 3: The Search for the Self (Vaishnava Hinduism)


• 4: The Doctrine of Rebirth


• 5: Buddhism and the Self


• 6: Evolutionary Naturalism


• 7: The Embodied Soul


• 8: Original Sin


• 9: The Doctrine of Atonement


• 10: Salvation by Grace


• 11: The World to Come


• 12: Human Destiny in Judaism and Islam


• 13: Human Destiny in Christianity


• 14: The Ultimate End of All Things


• 15: Conclusion