The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live

by J. Todd Billings

Overview

We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality—something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people.

In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes.

Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer, Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive hope for small, mortal creatures.
Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give ourselves over to the Lord of life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587434204
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

J. Todd Billings (ThD, Harvard University Divinity School) is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. He is the author of several books, including Rejoicing in Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer and Life in Christ and Union with Christ, winner of a Christianity Today Book Award.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

1 Welcome to Sheol: A Guided Tour of Life in the Pit 21

2 Two Views of Mortality: Is Death an Enemy or a friend? 49

3 Mortals in Denial: Living as Dying Creatures 72

4 Interplanetary Exploration: The Strange New World of Modern Medicine 95

5 The Way of Prosperity and the Christian Way 121

6 The Fracturing of Our Stories, and Life after Death 148

7 Hoping for the End as Mortals 177

Conclusion 213

Acknowledgments 221

Notes 223

Scripture Index 235

Subject Index 237

Editorial Reviews

06/29/2020

Billings (Rejoicing in Lament), professor at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich., explores his story of living “as a patient with terminal cancer, as a follower of Christ, and as a theologian on pilgrimage” in this stirring rumination on mortality. Encouraging Christian readers to stop fearing and denying death, he explains that “recovering a sense of our mortality can become an exercise the Spirit uses to help us cultivate authentic resurrection hope.” Billings discusses his 2012 diagnosis with an incurable cancer, his ongoing treatment, and subsequent rediscovery of an active, joyous life. Examining biblical narratives, he compares the shadow of death to the depths of Sheol (hell) mentioned in the books of Psalms and Jonah and assures readers that God will not abandon them, asking them to take to heart “God’s promise that death is not the final word.” He also refers movingly to Psalm 39:4–5, which describes the fleeting nature of life, weighs the value of appreciating simple pleasures, and reminds readers to turn to God for deliverance. Christians contemplating the afterlife will appreciate Billings’s moving reflections. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly