J Todd Billings

Christian Dying J Todd Billings

We human beings are mortal. Our lives in this world inevitably terminate in death. This reality, however, need not cause us to despair, since Jesus Christ has gone before us into the far country of death, giving us hope that this defining feature of our earthly lives is not the end, but instead is an entrance into Christ's presence and a path to the fullness of the Spirit's new creation in which God will be all in all. Christian Dying: Witnesses from the Tradition is a collection of essays containing reflections from Christian authors--whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant--on the meaning and appropriation of Christian hope in the face of death in conversation with a number of great voices from the Christian tradition.

CONTRIBUTORS: Michel Rene Barnes, John C. Cavadini, Marc Cortez, Brian E. Daley, S. J., Paul L. Gavrilyuk, Matthew Levering, David Luy, Mark McIntosh, Gilbert Meilaender, Cyril O'Regan, Marcus Plested, Brent Waters.

"Our deaths are closer than we are used to admitting. By showing us how palpably close death was for the great theologians of the Christian tradition, the first-rank authors of this remarkable volume offer the rich and untapped resources of the Christian tradition to beings who must learn that they too will pass away like the flowers of the field."
--Brian Brock, University of Aberdeen, King's College, UK

George Kalantzis is Professor of Theology and Director of The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies at Wheaton College. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service.

Matthew Levering holds the James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. Among his many books are Dying and the Virtues and On Christian Dying: Classic and Contemporary Texts.