Set aside all the theistic garbage for ever. If you are really curious about the matter, it's probably a better idea to read in the mystical tradition: at least they all say the same thing: the secret to salvation is attention, attention, attention. That's all. Really. Oh, not to mention that salvation is not about some hereafter -- it is now or never.
My favorite, more current interpreter in this tradition, is J. Krishnamurti. I'm not sure why. He's an incredibly good writer; very dry sense of humor. Best place to start is a little compilation called "The First and Last Freedom" or try "Commentaries on the Living." Ignore what he says about communism and psychonalysis: he doesn't get it. (His criticism of 'isms' centers mostly on the danger of pursuing the logic of ideas. As for analysis, he thinks it's ratiocination, he misses the point of the relationship between shrink/patient as the core of the treatment.) For you western rationalists, you could also try Hubert Benoit's "The Supreme Doctrine" -- he approaches the whole thing from a western rational perspective; perhaps more digestibe for people who read Kant and the like.
But anyway, at the risk of getting myself laughed off this list, give it a try.
Joanna