In this thoughtful and reflective, cheerful, and honest, book, Kenneth Wilson engages with the way in which human life always takes place in the context of death and dying. More than any other of the great religions, Christianity has engaged with death, been outraged by it, and yet embraced it at the same time. Kenneth Wilson regards death as a feature of faithful living, as a natural and a spiritual reality which cannot be escaped, but for which we must prepare if we want to be able to live life to the full. Starting from his own experience of bereavement as a teenager, Kenneth Wilson reflects on the theology of death and dying, on mortality as a fact of human life, on preparing for a good death and of the funeral rite. Mortality is the natural condition of all life - in principle of all creation. Here there is offered a Christian approach to death. Kenneth Wilson suggests that it is the means whereby God brings into human consciousness a sense of the finitude of human life, thereby enabling each person to be responsible. Never-endingness is meaningless. Self-consciousness, the natural product of evolution, is the process by which we become growingly responsible with God for our selves and the world through affectionate enquiry and intelligent concern. Such freedom for the world and our place within it, is the never-ending purpose to which God has committed God's self in creating. The book concludes with a selection of literature, poetry and music which the author has found helpful in developing his thoughts about death, dying and bereavement.
- ISBN10 0716206439
- ISBN13 9780716206439
- Publish Date 25 June 2008
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 23 February 2012
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Epworth Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 180
- Language English