Myths that explain the origin of death have been found among many cultures. Clearly, reflection on death and on life after death belongs to the oldest layers of religion. Yet because of the oral nature of these myths, their approach to the problem of death is relatively unsophisticated. A steady progress became possible only after the Greek invention of simplified writing. This process has continued through the twentieth century, and philosophy and theology, directly or indirectly, have exerted the most important influences on religious thinking about life after death.

The terms soul and otherworld have not always carried the same meanings during the course of history. "Primitive" conceptions of the soul were usually of two types: the so-called free-soul, which represents the individual personality but which becomes inactive when the body is active, and thus represents the person after death; and the...