Colleen McDannell & Bernhard Lang. Heaven. A history. Yale University Press. 1988.

This lavishly illustrated book investigates the history and meaning of Christian material culture in America over the past 150 years. Drawing on a rich array of historical sources and on in-depth interviews with Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Colleen McDannell examines the relationship between religion and mass consumption.
What do Christians believe they will experience after a virtuous life? What will an eternity in the hereafter be like? In this copiously illustrated, lively book, Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang describe and interpret the ways in which believers – from biblical authors to medieval mystics, from Jesus to present-day religious thinkers – have pictured Heaven, not just in doctrine but also in poetry, art, literature, and popular culture. In so doing, they shed new light on both the private and public dimensions of western culture.