The Theology of Death

by Douglas Davies

This is both an important book and a very dense one, packing a huge amount of scholarship and thought into under 200 pages to give not just a detailed overview of the changing faces of theological thinking on the subject of death throughout the Christian centuries but also to provide penetrating insights into some of the death related issues that face Christians today. It includes an excellent discussion on the rise of woodland burials, highlighting how they seem to accentuate the fertility of the corpse, how in decay it imparts new life and how they might be seen as an attempt to reverse our wilful exploitation of the world. Among other subjects covered there is also a vivid dissection of contemporary theologies of the Rapture, which might be seen to be the ultimate way of death avoidance.
Its importance lies both in the theological breadth which it covers with respect to a most crucial aspect of our lives - the ending of them – and the illuminating grounding it provides for the minister involved in comforting the bereaved and leading funerals, particularly in the light of the growing disjunction that exists between a society that thinks almost exclusively in terms of the resurrection of the soul and the Christian faith which is predicated upon the resurrection of the body. I commend it not just to students of theology but to any minister who wishes to obtain a thorough and insightful theological underpinning to their pastoral work and preaching.



Reviewer: Richard Greatrex   (12/08/09)

Paperback
Price: £19.99
Publisher:T&T Clark imprint of Continuum
Published:2008
ISBN:978-0-567-03049-8