Garvey suggests that the common view of the soul being released from its "imprisonment" in the body actually offers cold comfort to those bereaved or dying. The Christian affirmation of the resurrected and transformed body, he reminds us, is an essential part of the truth about death's real depths and about what life is finally meant to be.
Incorporating stories from the author's own family life and experience as a parish priest, this brief, accessible book will be of particular help to pastors, people recently bereaved, and those who work with the bereaved.
Reviews
Sidney CallahanJohn Garvey writes on human life and death with lucidity and learning. This is a thoroughly engaging work that is both personal and profound. I was moved and inspired.
John H. Erickson
In the face of death, that great unknown, it’s hard to be honest with ourselves or with others. We duck the hard questions. We respond, if at all, with pious platitudes. Not so Fr. John Garvey. In this remarkable little book he explores what the Christian understanding of death and resurrection can mean for life — not just in a vague “hereafter” but as we live it here and now, in the time and space of the present age.
Jim Forest
Garvey challenges not only readers who are unsure what they believe, but also Christians who have either attempted to soften the reality of death by sentimentality or promoted the idea that the soul can get along quite nicely once “freed” from the body. . . . It’s exciting to come upon a book that takes such an unblinking, sober look at the mystery of death. I will be returning to this book from time to time and be recommending it to friends.
John Dunne
This illuminating meditation is written by someone who has encountered death in his own family and in his ministry as a priest, and who has reflected profoundly on the Christian hope of bodily resurrection.
ISBN: 9780802829184
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: WM B EERDMANS PUB CO - published 15/07/2005
Format: Paperback