FROM Cicero to spirituals, Psalms to Tennyson, philosophy to sentimental verse, Ian Bradley has gathered 60 treasured passages about death and heaven. His aim is to provide assurance for those pondering their mortality, and a resource for those ministering to them. For each extract, he provides a helpful short commentary that sets it in context.
The chronological arrangement begins with ancient texts from East and West, including the Bible, then from medieval sources. The 17th century is well represented, but almost half the book’s selections are from the 19th century, including hymns — which Bradley has done much to encourage appreciation of — and with a notable fondness for Christina Rossetti’s poems.
Tellingly, there are no passages from the past hundred years, which Bradley characterises as a time when theologians “largely ceased writing and thinking about heaven and the afterlife” in the interests of “realised eschatology”.
This absence of modern writing significantly limits the book’s usefulness. There is much to reassure those who are at ease with traditional envisionings of heaven, but little that speaks to a modern sensibility, beyond R. S. Thomas’s terse remark, “We came from God and go to God. That is good enough for me.”
In effect, Bradley’s period selection highlights the need for a further anthology from the past hundred years, and surely inspiring material is to be found. John V. Taylor might be one candidate, as he reaches for new metaphors for eternity: “I expect to be confronted with the whole of reality in one impact, streaming towards me. . . I am either suddenly going to find it in myself to spread my arms, say yes, and jump into the stream, or else I am going to shrink back and say no. I think all the little decisions I am making here in this short life are the decisions as to whether I will ultimately say yes to reality. . .”
Meanwhile, Bradley recognises that “there remain many imponderables . . . including, for the Christian, resurrection versus immorality.” Perhaps, but I suspect a misprint.
The Revd Philip Welsh is a retired priest in the diocese of London.
The Quiet Haven: An anthology of readings on death and heaven
Ian Bradley
DLT £20
(978-1-913657-30-7)
Church Times Bookshop £18