Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things

by Dale C. Allison

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467444583
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/08/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Dale C. Allison Jr. is Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. His other books include The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus and The Luminous Dusk: Finding God in the Deep, Still Places.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Death and Fear 1

2 Resurrection and Bodies 19

3 Judgment and Partiality 45

4 Ignorance and Imagination 69

5 Hell and Sympathy 93

6 Heaven and Experience 121

Notes 151

Index of Names and Subjects 169

Editorial Reviews

John P. Burgess
— Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
“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.”
 
David Bentley Hart
— author of The Beauty of the Infinite
“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."
 
Thomas G. Long
— Candler School of Theology
“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!”

 

From the Publisher