Led into Mystery: Faith Seeking Answers in Life and Death

by John de Gruchy

Overview

• A fascinating piece of lived theology by a theologian of international renown. • Theological reflection on how to engage with the experience of death is a perennial theme in practical Christian theology. • John de Gruchy is a well-known SCM author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780334047360
Publisher:	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Publication date:	05/31/2013
Pages:	247
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Notes viii

Prologue: The Day Steve Died 1

1 Echoes of Mystery 23

2 Walking Through the Door 58

3 The God Question 95

4 The Human Enigma 135

5 The Hope Within Us 174

Epilogue: Dying We Live 215

Indexes of Biblical References 227

Indexes of Names 229

Indexes of Subjects & Places 234

Editorial Reviews

John de Gruchy is one of the leading English language theologians of his generation, an expert on Bonhoeffer, and well known for a wide range of theological writing. His son Steve showed every sign of stepping into his father’s shoes. In 2010, however, he was tragically drowned in a diving accident. This book is the record of John and his wife Isobel’s attempt to come to terms with his death, from the standpoint of their Christian faith, and in particular in terms of their faith in the resurrection. Moving and profound, it offers an account of how faith deals with tragedy without cheap consolation and allowing for the full measure of grief.

Tim Gorringe

This book had to be written. Gather a group of friends to discuss and ponder it. Steve de Gruchy, one of South Africa's bright lights, drowned at age 48. The tragedy and loss stopped his family in its tracks and forced a deep reexamination of Christian faith's most basic claims. Pushed and pulled into previously unexperienced depths of life and death, John de Gruchy, his father, set upon the hard, exacting theological journey, with Led into Mystery the result. Readers can only be grateful. Led into Mystery also had to be written because of science's challenges to religious truth, especially neuroscience. de Gruchy, keenly aware and respectful of these challenges to faith and the reality of death, faces them straightforwardly. Here, too, readers are the benefactors.

Larry Rasmussen

In a moving tribute to his son who died tragically in a boating accident, John de Gruchy with his usual persuasiveness helps to reassert mystery as a credible and indispensable religious category.It is a 'must read'.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

This is a courageous piece of theological thinking, not simply because of the tragic circumstances from which it emerged, but also the intellectual daring that is so evident. John de Gruchy is an internationally recognised theologian, but with profound and unsettling questions spurring him on, he enters territories, poetic and scientific, in his demand for a faith that can stand before and in divine mystery. This is a compelling piece of writing and a great book.

Graham Ward