In Dante\'s Paradiso, the final installment of his three-part Divine Comedy, the saintly gather in a celestial rose. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
Paradise Beckons(02 of10)
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Fra Angelico\'s 15th-century fresco portrays throngs of joyful, righteous Christians dancing with angels through a beautiful, earthlike garden into a heavenly kingdom, a physical place of light and beauty. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
Duomo(03 of10)
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A fresco in the Duomo in Florence depicts the blessing and admission of the faithful through heaven\'s gate, guarded by Saint Peter. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
Epic Journey(04 of10)
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A fresco in Florence\'s Duomo presents an image of the poet Dante holding a copy of his masterwork, surrounded by images of his stratified realms of paradise, purgatory, and hell. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
(05 of10)
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Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch imagined humans in an earthly paradise and passage to the highest part of heaven (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
City of God(06 of10)
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In a Renaissance-era illustration for Augustine\'s ancient masterwork, saints are received in heaven above while sinners below either strive for Christian virtue or suffer damnation. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)
Book of the Dead(07 of10)
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In an Egyptian funerary text dating to the period of 1069-945 B.C., the deceased meets the falcon-headed god Horus and Hathor, goddess of love. These documents were placed in tombs to help the dead navigate the afterlife. (credit:TIME / Lisa Miller)