Book excerpt: Is there a future after death and what does this future look like? What kind of life can we expect, and in what kind of world? Is there another, hopefully better world than the one we live in? The articles collected in this volume, all written by leading experts in the field, deal with the question how ancient Jewish and Christian authors describe “otherworldly places and situations”. They investigate why various forms of texts were created to address the questions above, how these texts functioned, and how they have to be understood. It is shown how ancient descriptions of the “otherworld” are taking over and reworking existing motifs, forms and genres, but also that they mirror concrete problems, ideas, experiences, and questions of their authors and the first readers.