Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things
Overview
When he was 23 years old, Dale Allison almost died in a car accident. That terrifying experience dramatically changed his ideas about death and the hereafter. In Night Comes Allison wrestles with a number of difficult questions concerning the last things—such questions as What happens to us after we die? and Why does death so often frighten us?
Armed with his acknowledged scholarly expertise, Allison offers an engaging, personal exploration of such themes as death and fear, resurrection and judgment, hell and heaven, in light of science, Scripture, and his own experience. As he ponders and creatively imagines—engaging throughout with biblical texts, church fathers, rabbinic scholars, poets, and philosophers—Allison offers fascinating fare that will captivate many a reader's heart and soul.
Key Features
- Provides a personal theological exploration
- Reflects on judgment, death, resurrection, and the afterlife
- Considers the biblical portrayal of the future
Contents
- Death and Fear
- Resurrection and Bodies
- Judgment and Partiality
- Ignorance and Imagination
- Hell and Sympathy
- Heaven and Experience
Top Highlights
“no one will be able to know what I’ve known, feel what I’ve felt, and love what I’ve loved.” (Page 2)
Praise for the Print Edition
Dale Allison is a first-rate biblical scholar, historian, and Christian theologian. His reflections on the last things help us think in fresh ways not only about life after death but also about such things as social justice and God’s self-revelation amid human sorrow and loss. Scholars will delight in the rich fare that Allison serves up, but this remarkable book will also speak to pastors and to every person who wonders about how to live in the face of death. Extraordinarily thoughtful and deeply personal, Night Comes makes a profound witness to the ultimate mysteries—and certainties—of religious faith.
—John P. Burgess, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
A wise, honest, penetrating meditation, guided and shaped throughout by unflagging compassion. Allison is an ideal companion in thinking long and scrupulously about truly final things.
—David Bentley Hart, author of The Beauty of the Infinite
In this probing work Dale Allison raises life’s largest possible theological questions—the questions we humans all have—questions about death, judgment, heaven, and hell. In a quest for answers, his nimble mind sends him racing across historical, cultural, and theological landscapes, and his range is astounding. . . . A treasure!
—Thomas G. Long, Candler School of Theology
Product Details
- Title: Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things
- Author: Dale C. Allison Jr.
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2016
- Pages: 184
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Theology
