The Christian understanding of the afterlife did not spring fully grown from Jesus, but evolved in the early years of the church by Christian reflection.
Early Farmers and Manure: Stone Age Europeans Were More Advanced Than We Thought
The use of manure as a slow release fertilizer may go back as far back as 6000 BC, at the dawn of agriculture. The use of a long term fertilizer implies social stability, where farmers and their families occupy the same land for generations. It reflects an investment in land.
Reincarnation and Christianity: How a Theological Concept Was Lost
Jesus talked of everlasting damnation, but he gave no systematic account of what happens to those who die before the Age to Come arrives. Many early Christians believed in some form of reincarnation, but that the idea fell out of favour in the sixth century.
The Filioque Problem – A Thousand Years of Schism
In 1054 papal legate Cardinal Humbert marched into the Orthodox Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and banged a bull of excommunication onto the altar. The Greek emperor tried to reconcile the two sides to no avail. The split between the churches dates from then.
