Is This All There Is?
On Resurrection and Eternal Life
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- $27.99
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
2020 Catholic Press Association second place award for English translation edition
Is the Christian hope for resurrection still alive or has it become tired? How can we talk about the Resurrection today? Gerhard Lohfink takes up the question of death and resurrection in this new book. He argues against the dazzling array of today's ideas and expectations and seeks his answers in Scripture, the Christian tradition, and human reason. With his characteristically gentle but clear language, he reveals the power of Christian resurrection, showing it is not about events that lie in the distant future but rather occurrences incomprehensively close to us. They were long since begun and they will embrace us fully in our own death..
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this thoughtful, entertaining book, Lohfink (Jesus of Nazareth), a German Catholic priest and New Testament professor at the University of T bingen, considers the Christian perspective on large questions of faith and the existence of an afterlife. He begins with an overview of theories about the afterlife from different religions and cultures over the millennia. With supporting quotes from tomb inscriptions, obituaries, poems, novels, scriptures, and philosophers, Lohfink offers perspectives from those skeptical of any afterlife to various understandings of the soul's continuation whether through descendants (as in Hindi traditions), reincarnation (Buddhism), or becoming one with the universe. Following this general summary, he focuses on the early Israelites' relationship with the divine, exploring how their relationship with one God (rather than the many gods of their neighbors) infused a "radical worldliness." This understanding, Lohfink asserts, then found affirmation in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Asking big religious questions (such as, "Can God, whose nature is pure love, allow a part of humanity to suffer eternal hell, eternal torment?") Lohfink takes aim at classic discussions of faith from a Christian perspective rooted in wonder and trust. This intelligent, gracious book is a welcome contribution to theological conversations about life, death, and resurrection.
