"(W)hether you are healthy or sick, or whether the future looks
bright or bleak, true hope does not involve closing over the wound
of death. Instead, Even the wound can remind us of who we are:
beloved yet small and mortal children of God” (Billings, 11).
Shepherding families through the loss of a loved one is challenging work. How can we
do it well? What things should we know about living and dying that will help us help
them? Does death itself teach us about what it means to live?
Join The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity in a book discussion, especially for
pastors, that examines questions about what it means to die well and how to guide
your congregation through the realities of death so that we also live well. We will be reading The End of The Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live by J. Todd Billings.
Grab a copy and start reading ASAP. We will meet via Zoom on Thursday, April 18,
at 2:00 pm central to discuss the book and its implications for pastors in the local
church.
Questions: research@cbhd.org
About the The End of The Christian Life: How Embracing our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live:
We’re all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us
see death as a distant reality—something that happens only at the end of a long life or
to other people.
In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view.
Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the
journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected
Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes.
Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer,
Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive
hope for small, mortal creatures.
Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church
leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging
to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in
the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give
ourselves over to the Lord of life.