Not Uninformed: Sure and certain hope for death and dying

Have you ever found it hard to bring up the subject of death? Maybe you know someone who has a terminal illness, or a friend who has suicidal thoughts? Let’s highlight some key chapters of this book so you can follow the train of thought.

Chapter 2, on ‘Changes and Challenges’, is quite tricky to follow, but worth the effort. It proves particularly enlightening regarding different models of death and the medicalisation of death.

Chapter 3 is very useful. It covers common questions relating to suffering, and shows examples of how various individuals have responded in times of trial.

Chapter 5, on ‘Hope in Christ Alone’, is by far the most wonderful – demonstrating ably our hope of heaven and our future glorification.

If you need some tips on how to conduct funerals, there is useful material here. There is also an interesting chapter on church leadership, which focuses first on the qualifications of leaders, and then outlines different ways of organising pastoral care.

The book concludes suitably with some thoughts on Romans 12. Here Davies speaks of our need for wholehearted dedication to the Lord, and reminds us that all our behaviour and relationships – including our pastoral care in churches and to individuals – are to be governed by genuine love.

This book will be most helpful for the mature Christian who wants to address the challenge of people trying to avoid death, and to explain the true hope which know we as believers. A new or young believer could find it difficult to get their head around all the arguments, but it would certainly worth a go if they are up for an in-depth read.

Jonathan Jeffreys

Droitwich