Most western religions believe that when a person dies, he or she goes either to heaven or to hell and remains there eternally. The individual is forever numbered among the "sheep" who will inherit eternal life or among the "goats" who will suffer everlasting punishment.

Although belief in endless torment in hell has been increasingly questioned in recent centuries, the traditional view of the "four last things"—death, judgment, heaven, and hell— continues to shape expectations about the present and the future.

While this view of the last things is familiar in the West, the religions of south and east Asia have a different outlook. For Hinduism and Buddhism this human life is merely one in an ongoing series of lives, with no clear and abiding separation between "sheep" and "goats."

In this book I ask why the eastern and western beliefs are so different and I look for explanations. The monotheism of the western faiths is a significant element, but many other doctrines, including views of the nature of God, scripture and authority, human nature, justice, and punishment, are also involved.

I conclude that the tradition of an everlasting hell is incompatible with an accurate interpretation of scripture and with the Christian doctrine of God. The "goats" do not exist, in the West as well as the East.

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Peebles' unique contribution to the understanding of western religions is his argument that hell cannot be eternal. Examining carefully the eastern religions, which have no tradition of eternal hell, and the western tradition in support of it, he concludes that an eternal hell is illogical and incompatible with western beliefs, especially as articulated in Christianity.

The subject of this book is not unique, but its breadth of treatment, the comparison with eastern religions, and above all the conclusion rejecting the eternality of hell are, taken together, unique. This book is an essential addition to scholarship in eschatology.

  Hall Peebles is Evans Professor of Religion Emeritus at Wabash College, where he has taught eastern and western religions and won the McLain-McTurnan Excellence in Teaching Award. His graduate training was primarily in Christian and Hebrew studies. A Ford Foundation Faculty Fellowship in Non-Western Studies at Yale, plus travel in south and east Asia, led to his growing interest in Asian religions, particularly Buddhism. This interest has culminated in this book..