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- A Simple but Poweful Argument
- "The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain"
- Problem of Pain
- The Problem of Pain in its Right Context
- Absolutely Amazing Tackling of the Issue
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The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: HarperOne
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Binding: Paperback
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Mere Christianity
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ASIN: 0060652969
Release Date: 2001-02-05 |
Amazon.com
The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would an all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?" Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because our finite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that God loves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not more than he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "Divine Omnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds in lifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating these topics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallow and even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honest about his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being made perfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded that he is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through the dissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heaven and for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naively wish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for his children, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with his charming wit and pious mind. --Jill Heatherly
Book Description
Why must humanity suffer? In this elegant and thoughtful work, C. S. Lewis questions the pain and suffering that occur everyday and how this contrasts with the notion of a God that is both omnipotent and good. An answer to this critical theological problem is found within these pages.
Customer Reviews:
A Simple but Poweful Argument.......2007-09-19
C.S. Lewis offers a brilliant defense of Christian theism despite the pain in the world in this brief book. Combining sharp thinking and excellent prose, this book is highly recommended for Christians and non-Christians alike.
Lewis's arguments are similar to many theodicies (defenses of God's existence despite suffering) developed by great Christian thinkers past and present. Man's suffering is in fact a result of free will, not an original creation of God. And suffering continues to result due to the evil wills and deeds of men. As Lewis observes, "When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men." If men are to have any significant free will at all, the bad consequences of evil deeds must be allowed.
This, of course, leaves the problem of so-called natural evil. Lewis contends that such evil and pain are necessary for our own repentance. In order to recognize our sins and ask God for forgiveness (and thus restore the proper relationship between created and Creator) we humans must be awoken with pain and suffering. Pain shatters the notion that what we have is ours and is good enough.
The Problem of Pain, despite its brevity, covers a great deal of ground, including a defense of the doctrine of the fall and the doctrines of heaven and hell. All throughout, Lewis's writing style is accessible and convincing. For a powerful defense of Christian theism in the face of a cruel world, "The Problem of Pain" is highly recommended.
"The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain".......2007-07-13
"Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself."
Another serious and powerful work in a long series by C.S. Lewis: why must we suffer, mentally and physically? He hits on subjects we all struggle with. Lewis detests the doctrine of hell, but it is written, so it must be discussed. The chapter on animal suffering is fascinating. The only chapter that led me to question his words is on man's fall.
On human wickedness: "A God who did not regard this with unappeasable distaste would not be a good being. We cannot even wish for such a God----it is like wishing that every nose in the universe were abolished, that smell of hay or roses or the sea should never again delight any creature, because our own breath happens to stink."
On saving grace: "The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why Our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success. Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger."
By the Lord's love we suffer; this strengthens, and it also keeps us on the straight and narrow. If we are to look for easiness, then we are to look for less love. It is for our sake.
"The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. How impossible it is to enact the surrender of the self by doing what we like,..........."
After finishing the book, a thought on heaven came to my mind:
The differences are what makes up a community whether here or in heaven: God has created us after a time where all was God (but that is no more!); we are all unique parts to a puzzle. He needs us all back to complete it----to rejoin our family in heaven; it pangs Him that many will not make it, and choose to ignore their created purpose, because they have surrendered to the self and not to the Lord. Once all was God, but after the creation all has changed; we are asked to be with God because we are of God. We are distinct here on earth, but the maximum distinction awaits us in heaven, to be reunited with our Creator.
Wish you well
Scott
Problem of Pain.......2007-05-30
Excellent book by C. S. Lewis. Used for adult Bible Study discussion group.
The Problem of Pain in its Right Context.......2007-05-01
Pain is real, just as sorrow, death, and wickedness. Your becoming a Christian will not encapsulate you away from it. Christ did not promise that in the first place. But there are reasons why pain happens, as much to Christians as non Christians, and we should reach a better understanding of the circumstances in which we live, so that we can apprehend the promises that are envolved through that pain. Everyone is to pick up a cross at childbirth, but whether you follow Christ with it depends only on you.
This book won't be the treat that 'Mere Christianity' was. It's more philosophical; it assumes the reader is a Christian and has some knowledge of Scripture. But nevertheless, everyone can follow his thinking and it will all make sense. About 160 pages, it has chapters of between 10 and 20 pages, and frames the problem in its right context before reaching his conclusion at the end of the book. This is not a make-you-feel-good (dumb) self-help book. It's a make you understand book.
Absolutely Amazing Tackling of the Issue.......2007-04-15
The first book of CS Lewis I read was "Mere Christianity" and I was profoundly stunned by how effective and witty he could be in his explanation of Christianity and Christian doctrine. So it was with eagerness that I devoted myself to the reading of this book.
And I was not disappointed in the least. The problem of pain is tightly linked with that of evil, in a world supposedly created and led by God. This is one of the most common, and most important, issues in theology, and I dare say, in everybody's life, provided they're somewhat curious about the world they live in. Justifying God on the counts of evil and pain is called theodicy, if I'm not mistaken, and that is what Lewis does in this book, but he does much more.
He deals with the basic problem I just mentioned, how could there be a good God when we live in such a wretched world, but he goes further and treats the human nature as "fallen", and that in a very interesting manner, not your silly Adam & Eve story taken literally (and by "silly" I don't mean the actual myth of Adam & Eve, just the literal taking of it).
Lewis tackles even such a complicated issue as animal pain and the condition of animals in Christianity. That shows quite some bravery.
One chapter is devoted to Hell, and another to Heaven, and either are really amazing prowess of theology. I'm no specialist of theology, but Lewis has a true gift in explaining of all this in a very clear fashion. He truly makes theology a thrilling matter!
After having read "Mere Christianity" and "The Problem of Pain", I'm absolutely convinced that I will get to read everything he wrote on theology, Christianity, and the likes. Regardless of your actual faith or lack thereof, you will find this book (or these books) worth your while. If you're interested in such things, please do yourself a favour and purchase those profoundly marvelous books.
Book Description
Now printed in a beautiful hardcover gift edition, the classic text of Good Grief will encourage and educate grievers in a new way. Inspiring and consoling two-color photographs set the mood for Granger Westberg's gentle wisdom and acute insight into human nature as he helps readers understand the ten identifiable stages of grief. Whether grieving a death or divorce, job loss or disappointment, everyone must move through these stages, and we are changed by the experience. Faith makes a difference during these times.
Customer Reviews:
Art.......2007-07-08
I worked for Hospice Austin and we used this book in our grief counseling groups. It is an excellent guide to the stages of the grieving process.
Great grief survival tool.......2007-06-21
I buy this helpful grief guide for all those who are close to me who have the necessary grief steps to wade or wallow through.
Simple, Succinct, and Invaluable Resource for Grief Recovery.......2007-05-26
I was given this book when my oldest brother was killed in 1995. When your heart is broken and your psyche is reeling from shock, pain, disbelief, and loss, it is too much to fathom to try to read a long, involved bunch of psychobabble. Granger Westberg's Good Grief is an easy read and truly confirms that the stages of grief through which one travels are, indeed, normal. He also tells you that there are times when you need to seek professional help to guide you through the grief process. In the past 12 years, I have given this book to many friends and acquaintances dealing with various types of loss. To a person, they've all told me how helpful this resource is and have passed it on to others. This book is truly a Godsend to the hurting.
A Blessing and So Simple to Read.......2007-04-08
I was a counelor for over 20 years and have given this book or recommended this little book often. The author speaks truth in such a simple and kind voice. I've been helped by it and I know it has helped those I've introduced to the book. Grieving is sometimes compared to the dying process discribed by Eliz Kubler Ross. Not true. Grief is so very different. The tiny size of this book makes it perfect for a grieving person who can barely read anything and certainly nothing too complicated. It's simplicity makes it a great book for all people. It can also be read again and again as the grief process continues and the griever goes through many changes which feel unique to them but which are usually very common to all of us who have had cause to grieve.
Good Grief.......2007-03-23
This small booklet describes the ten stages of grief and is written in such a manner that it is easy to read and the reader need not read each section in order. It is a helpful reference book that is given out at my church's community grief support group, "The Comfort Zone," which is why I purchased a quantity of them.
Book Description
Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? Gelek Rimpoche, one of the last reincarnated lamas to be educated in Tibet, examines these universal questions with a combination of ancient tradition and contemporary thought-revealing an empowering connection between what we believe and how we live our lives. He offers a bigger picture of life after life, with meditations for facing the dying process, overcoming negative emotions and cultivating compassion.
Customer Reviews:
what i learned.......2007-01-07
when you encounter a person or a situation that tries your patience. be thankful for them because they have given you a chance to practice your being patient and being compassionate.
"The time of dying is a very sensitve period": Insights into the Final Mystery.......2006-08-05
Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek's _Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation_ is a humane account of the dying process, particularly of the very subtle experiences of death when a person's consciousness dissolves. Gelhek draws upon his own personal experiences with dying persons (through sixty-plus years of life) as well as the numerous Tibetan Buddhist texts that focus on death and dying. The latter tradition has a scientific precision in its analysis of death, furnishing valuable, specific information for any person, regardless of his or her religious beliefs. Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek's mix of personal experience and Buddhist empiricism makes for a wonderful book.
Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek is incredibly humble about his experiences. He explains in a frank manner how he came to his views on reincarnation and the dying process. His style is non-dogmatic, and his writing is easy to understand. For instance, he writes early in the book, "I'm not here to try to convince you about reincarnation. That's my culture, my system--not yours. I would simply like to ask you to entertain the idea for a moment, to give it the benefit of the doubt and see how it changes your perspective on your life and your death." In this context, he discusses the anxieties he had when he began his own investigation into the dying process, first as an eleven year old novice monk in a Tibetan monastery and then later as an adult living in America.
In an early chapter, he describes how frightened he was when he first heard Buddhist teachings on the lower realms: "I was crying constantly, day and night. I was soaked in tears from the fear of falling into the lower realms--and from a slightly artificial compassion at the thought of others falling into them." With similar candor, the book then describes methods to prepare for death, both when one is healthy and when one is at the actual time of death. These instructions about death, ironically, provide a manual for living a good, productive life, where fear is replaced by a well-trained mind and a positive, loving outlook.
Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek includes a long poem, entitled "Do the Meditation Rock," by his late friend Allen Ginsburg. This poem and Gehlek's reminiscence of Ginsberg's own death offer a vivid sense of what actually happens at death. At the conclusion of the book, he offers this simple advice for achieving a clear mind and outlook: "Keep a watch on anger, attachment, and Ego all day long." This is the root of the practice of training the mind.
As a complement to _Good Life, Good Death_, another excellent book with specific information about the dying process is Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's _Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully: The Profound Practice of Transference of Consciousness_. Geshe Kelsang's book outlines in even more detail--like an artist's fine brushstrokes on a canvas--the actual meditation practices a person can engage at his or her own time of death or to assist loved one's during this time.
_Good Life, Good Death_ contains priceless instructions, based on the accumulated wisdom of an on-going tradition of knowledge and the depth of personal experience.
Good Instructions, Good Read.......2004-06-27
Gelek Rimpoche's book is one of the most practical and relevant books that you will ever read. If you've ever wondered about reincarnation and what happens after death, you won't be disappointed. One of the best gifts that Gelek Rimpoche has is that he can take deep material and make it accessible - this book is very readable, and you will find no pretension in the prose - it is lucid, instructive and to the point. Throughout the book, the author's refreshing sense of humor manages to shine through. After dealing with death and the Tibetan take on the subject, we are then presented with practical advice and instructions on how to live and cope with this very precious life that we have been given. The book also includes a daily practice in the appendix. Gelek Rimpoche has written a book that is brilliant and useful; it is a book that I'm sure I'll re-read numerous times in the future.
Awaken Your Awareness!.......2003-05-16
This book is excellent! If you've ever had a loved one die, have thought about death yourself, wondered if the things you do in this lifetime will follow you to the next or just feel the need for comfort lately in this world of fast paced chaos, this book is a MUST READ! I promise you'll nota only enjoy it and find it very difficult to put down once you begin reading it, but you'll also want everyone you care about to read it as well. This book is easy to read, easy to understand and very well written! This one is staying with me forever!
Awaken Your Awareness.......2003-05-16
This book is excellent! If you've ever had a loved one die, have thought about death yourself, wondered if the things you do in this lifetime will follow you to the next or just feel the need for comfort lately in this world of fast paced chaos, this book is a MUST READ! I promise you'll nota only enjoy it and find it very difficult to put down once you begin reading it, but you'll also want everyone you care about to read it as well. This book is easy to read, easy to understand and very well written! This one is staying with me forever!
Amazon.com
Even as Marilyn Webb put the finishing touches on The Good Death, assisted suicide had come before the Supreme Court for legalization. In fact, as long ago as 1990, events had converged that led to cataclysmic changes in how Americans die. One such event was Dr. Jack Kevorkian's first assisted suicide. Since then the nation has struggled with myriad legal, physical, and ethical sides to the issue of assisted suicide.
Recent technological and medical breakthroughs have--in a relatively short amount of time--extended the average age of death from 46 to 80 years of age. The lingering, debilitating diseases of old age have become the norm; technology and medicine continue to dazzle, prolonging life without considering the issue of its quality. That search for quality propelled Marilyn Webb, editor in chief of Psychology Today, to travel the country for six years, collecting stories and information that reflect every angle of the subject. She examined the range of care and values in places ranging from tiny hospices to major metropolitan medical centers. She interviewed 300 physicians, nurses, and health care workers, even such luminaries as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Kervorkian himself. She let conflicting views air: theologians versus Christian clerics; those in the Hemlock Society against pro-life conservatives. She sought out compelling, personal stories--the good, the bad, and the ugly--and analyzed the pressing issues that had begun to reshape our thoughts about death, including the legacy of Karen Ann Quinlan.
The Good Death can be read straight through or mined for the lessons taught by various aspects of the issue. Whatever your approach, you'll want to spend time with The Good Death, whether relishing or reeling from the stories or just pondering the values that shape the culture of death.
Book Description
Modern medical technology has lengthened our lives and forever altered how we face our deaths--but it has also created painful dilemmas that lawyers, doctors, spiritual leaders, and, above all, patients and their families are struggling with every day. Now, in this sweeping yet intimate report on death in America, Marilyn Webb has written the one essential book we all need to understand and deal with these new realities.
Drawing on more than four years of first-hand research and observation, Webb combines a journalist's objectivity with a passionate advocacy for people in pain. She has sat with dozens of dying patients--in high-tech teaching hospitals, in hospices, and in their homes. She has interviewed and worked with the leading legal experts and medical ethicists, pain specialists and psychologists, priests and spiritual counselors, as well as both advocates of assisted suicide and their determined opponents.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing insight to how modern issues affect our society's view on death.......2005-08-02
You cannot walk away from this book without a new persepective on how modern issues have affected the death experience. Marilyn Webb not not only brings insight to the reader on how death affects the family and friends, but also the dying. She presents a breadth of knowledge on so many point of views without pushing one or the other, because she knows death is a personal experience.
Many views of dying in America.......2000-07-09
Offering no soft, simple answers, this book gives a troubling look at many different views of dying in America. A necessary read for anyone interested in not just the spiritual side of dying, but the practical, political, difficult aspects of dying.
When I started reading books on dying (Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan, Patricia Kelley; The Grace in Dying by Kathleen Singh), I read books that gave me hope and comfort in dealing with my own mortality. This book made the hair on my neck rise up.
It begins by shattering illusions (the ones I'd built up) about having a pain-free, easy death. There are insurance companies, personal opinions, differing agendas of a variety of institutions that come into play.
In short, some people have an easier death than others. Webb writes in an easy to read, article style. She begins with a chapter called "Dying Easy", about the nearly beautiful, fairly comfortable death of Judith Hardin, who at 36 dies at home with her husband and children.
"Dying Hard," is based on Webb's personal interviews and experiences with the death of Peter Cicione. Cicione died a death more painful than it needed to be, largely due to medical staff's fears that this dying man was misusing morphine, might overdose or use so much medication that the drugs would no longer be effective (not true).
In "The Sorcerer's Apprenctice" and "When Death Becomes a Blessing," Webb focuses on the history of medical control of pain, the prolonging of life with new medical techniques and modern pain control through the works of Dr. Kathleen Foley, director of neurology pain service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Foley estimated that 5% of the patients she was seeing were "in unassuageable pain." Webb's conservative estimate offers that "109,500 people a year die with unrelieved suffering." Much of this is due to outdated information, old rules, and misunderstandings about how much medication a dying person in severe pain can and should get. She offers the possibility that terminally ill patients who want to commit suicide or look for assistance in dying might not do this, if their pain could be properly handled.
She has chapters about the legal conflicts for families who want comatose relatives off of life-support systems, with detailed information about Karen Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan's cases and the affects on their families long after these women died.
"Bearing the Burden" focuses on what happens to the lives of families with a terminally ill member - "The sad secret that many don't want to admit is that care at home, wonderful as it can be in helping a patient to a good death, is hard on families. Home care may allow for those close, intimate, late-night times with the dying family member...but there are also the difficult times: changing diapers, losing sleep or feeling intense anxiety because the patient is in pain or can't breath..."
This first half of the book is tough reading, but necessary - for there is still a lot of work to be done to make dying easier. The second half of the book deals with hospice; assisted dying (suicides); spirituality in dying.
She closes with 10 common factors 'good deaths' have - 1) open, ongoing communication with doctors, patients, families 2) preservation of the patient's decision-making powers for as long as possible 3) sophisticated pain control 4) limits on excessive treatment (medical interventions, per the patient) 5) focus on preserving the patient's quality of life 6) emotional support 7) financial support 8) family support 9) spiritual support 10) patient isn't abandoned by the medical staff even when curative treatment is no longer required.
She also has 10 changes, which she believes need to be made to change the culture of dying from a cold, hospital-set detachment to a family affair. These encompass everything from expanding health insurance to cover needs currently not met, to legalization of assisted suicide.
If you have given little thought to some of the darker sides of dying, focusing as I have on the spiritual and more uplifting side, this book offers a lot of food for thought. Well-written, easy to read, disturbing.
Even if you have different opinions than Webb has (about assisted suicide, for example), this book is a good read to investigate the other side's information and arguments.
Entheogens: Professional Listing.......1999-05-03
"The Good Death" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy." http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy
Important information everyone should know!.......1999-02-20
The Good Death provided me with information that everyone should know! If you have a loved one facing a trminal illness this is the book that you should read. I was especially grateful for the information about pain management, about what to expect, and to learn why we fail so often in this country to make people comfortable in their final days, how our "war on drugs" has tied the hands of doctors and resulted in dying patients being under medicated, often times grossly under medicated even hospices, and what you can do to insure that your loved on will not suffer.
Book Description
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, whose books on death and dying have sold in the millions, now offers an extraordinary visual record of her work. Through the brilliant photographs of Mal Warshaw, To Live Until We Say Good-Bye gives a gripping, intimate view of Dr. Kübler-Ross's counseling work with terminally ill patients as she brings them to an acceptance of death.
Customer Reviews:
An exceptionally moving work that showcases true courage, love, grace and hope for all, a real gift. .......2005-10-24
The book, To Live Until We Say Good-Bye, is not your common book on dying and grief or even the medical psychology of it, as is quite internationally acknowledged with many of Kubler-Ross's previous works, i.e. On Death and Dying and On Children and Death, et cetera. Rather, out of all of her works (Kubler-Ross), I would have to say that this one is the most accessible and the most outright, in-your-face emotional, the one that really tugs at the heartstrings. But it is a work that does so in a positive, open and meaningful way. Medical and psychiatric jargon is totally set aside and the four dying patients-for whom this book is about-Beth, Jamie, Louise and Jack, are allowed to come to the forefront, to have their stories and experiences related to those (the readers) who are living or could possible be dying themselves. Accompanied by the well written text of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and the varied contributors are the affecting black and white photographs by Mal Warshaw, photos taken of the very subjects in their assorted states in the dying process. Nothing is held back in respects to the people who are profiled-the good, the bad and the ugly-yet dignity unequivocally pervades. In this book, we meet a former model (Beth), who to the very end, clung to her physical beauty as her paramount asset. However, her written poetry illustrated her articulate and intelligent substance that went way beyond looks: "Voices whispering, Beth, Beth/You can no longer stay/Hand reaching out to grasp/Helping me on my way./I'll no longer ache with sorrow/No longer feel this pain/So adieu and fare thee well now/I shan't see thee again. (P. 37). Also, we meet 71-year-old Jack, a former construction worker and rebounding alcoholic who sadly, lived to see his son die of lung cancer. But he found redemption and purpose by building doll houses for charity while as a patient at St. Rose's Home, run by the Hawthorne Dominicans in New york City. Through the series of photographs, his religious and psychological evolution becomes clearly evident, and it is a humbling and beautiful thing to see. And it is so for all those profiled, especially for Jamie and Louise, the other two patients who become are teachers. And their chapters are equally moving and powerful, if not more so. There too is an in-depth chapter on the fantastic work done by hospice and the heroics of everyday volunteers, people young and old who do not give "all" of themselves in order to give the best of themselves. All in all, To Live Until We Say Good-Bye is another great work that looks at life's final journey.
Elisabeth revealed our simplicity through the complexity .......2005-07-09
This book has taught me to experience the words that may have never been spoken if I had not of encountered Kubler~Ross through her work with the dying. We have a need to thank her for the journey she took ....
Kubler Rosss Second Best Hit.......2005-06-04
Kubler Ross- got this book right. The many telling photographs intermixed with very personal accounts of the dying and their family and friends makes for a moving and compelling journey into the emotions, experiences, challenges, disappointments of the dying.
The right balance between peronsal narratives, the authors commentary and photographs was achieved in this book- a feat most books on death and dying do not. Couple this book with Donald Heinzs book The Last Passage and as a friend, relative or caretaker of the dying youll have insight and knowledge into the world of the dying and some insights on what to do when someone you care about is dying.
Living with Dying.......1997-03-05
Reading a book about confrontations with death and dying by the terminal ill and by their families and loved ones may not sound like anyone's idea of "escapist fare" or a good rainy day pick-me-up, but this large picture book is first and foremost about the value of life and living. Undoubtedly one of the most "important" books I have read, To Live Until We Say Good-Bye spotlights three personal stories: a New York City poet and model dying of cancer, a young girl suffering with a brain tumor, and an older woman who refuses treatment of her illness to lead the remainder of her life in her own home. The stories are remarkable because there is a touching sense of revelation to each--that none of them had perhaps lived so fully and completely until they learned time was running out. The young girl's story, "Jamie," is especially moving because it not only deals with her concerns and fears about her future, but also those of her single mother and her young brother--and, ultimately, although the process of losing a loved one is unimaginably painful, the family is able to find some peace in their ability to make the final days meaningful--and full of life. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross narrates the stories, and Mal Warshaw provides the photographs; together, they have assembled an unpretentious and dignified lesson about seeking the value in life--surely, a message that is beneficial to and yet overlooked very often by us all
Book Description
"What should I say? What should I do? How can I help?" A Good Friend for Bad Times offers readers a better understanding of the grief process and provides insight and practical advice for expressing concern to a friend.
Deborah Bowen and Susan Strickler address how to support a family before and immediately after a death and in the weeks and years beyond. They also provide insight for situations involving Alzheimer's disease, cancer, AIDS, suicide, and the death of a child, among others. In addition, they give attention to supporting children through grief and suggest ways to help individuals through holidays and remembrance days.
Customer Reviews:
Offering both general and specific advice.......2004-11-05
A licensed social worker and a professional bereavement counselor pool their years of experience in A Good Friend for Bad Times: Helping Others Through Grief, a Christian resource for helping friends and loves ones cope with terrible loss. Offering both general and specific advice, especially for dealing with the cruel reality of death, A Good Friend for Bad Times emphasizes the importance of being there, and describes helpful means of emotional and physical suppport in the first weeks, the first month, and the first year after experiencing a death. Highly recommended.
Best book available to help others.......2004-10-18
The book's authors have obviously spent significant time counseling others through periods of grief and the book shows it. Sometimes these types of books are written by scholastic types and not someone who knows what it's like to deal with issues first hand. Easy to read and to understand, this should be the first book you pick up when you want to help someone through tough times.
Excellent Tool - how to help others.......2004-09-25
This is fine resource & most people will find helpful hints & ideas to help their friends deal with the loss of a love one. Written in such a way which it can benefit those who lose a loved one or those who want to aid someone who has lost someone, it is easy to read & organized so it can be read from cover to cover or just pick up a chapter for a quick read.
Everyone who cares about people should read this book!.......2004-09-17
Everyone knows someone who is grieving at one time or another. This book is a practical guide on understanding and helping your friends and loved ones through these difficult times. I wish a few of my co-workers had read it when I was suffering from the loss of a child. This should be required reading for employers and supervisors.
Book Description
The prospect of dying can be overwhelming, whether it's happening to you, a family member, or a friend. In Good End, Dr. Michael Appleton addresses questions about hospice care and end-of-life issues with compassion and honesty. This is a must read for patients and families who are on hospice or considering hospice care.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-07-09
This book is used with our Hospice patients and for our staff. Very good and well recommended.
Book Description
Award-winning literary journalist Chip Brown tells the story of the life and death of a brilliant, complicated man-an outdoorsman with a troubled soul, a pioneer of the New England wilderness, who sought rebirth in nature only to end his own life on a snowy mountaintop in a gesture of chilling premeditation.
Guy Waterman checked out of his former life as a Capitol Hill speechwriter and father of three at midlife to pursue the passion that promised to deliver him from his demons: mountain climbing. Along with his second wife, he built a cabin nestled in the mountains of Vermont, without modern conveniences of any kind, in order to live purely on the land and for the land, and thereby to redefine himself in the extremes of frontier life. An accomplished jazz pianist who could recite hours of poetry, a genuine eccentric beloved by many, Waterman became the dean of the homesteading movement and the foremost historian of the mountains of the northeast. So when he methodically carried out his mountain suicide, those who loved him were left to wonder whether it was the action of a noble man, painfully aware of the encroachments of age and determined to die with dignity, or that of a tragic figure doomed by the code of the Hard Man-a man who could not find the strength to be weak and forgive his own limitations.
Chip Brown writes with exhilarating clarity about the thrill of mountain climbing and with compassion and intelligence about the mystery that begins when a life ends. Good Morning Midnight is a gripping story of survival in nature, with an existential heart.
Customer Reviews:
Good Morning Midnight.......2006-03-21
Great book, I was touched by Chip's thoughtful writting of such a wonderful, but sad, life and death. It is so sad that friends and family allowed these men to suffer through depression without finding a way to getting them help. It's a message to all of us to help those who can not help themselves.
The Tragic Story of A New England Legend.......2006-03-18
This is a powerful book. Mr. Brown examines the life of Guy Waterman, a man who became the personification of the Old Man Of The Mountain. Guy was an amzing man who workedin fields ranging from speech writing in Washington, to jazz pianist, to winter caretaker of an AMC hut.
There is no hero-worship here. The book examines Guy's dark side as well; his early divorce, chronic depression, the deaths of his two sons, and his eventual suicide.
A well-penned epilogue.......2004-04-25
This very artfully told tale was truly page turner for me. Thick with literary references, Brown's story of Guy Waterman reflects the complexity of a multi-talented individual, appreciated by many, but omniouly least of all by himself.
I came away with a very strong feeling that Guy Waterman was truly a unique individual. His successes far outweighed his failures. But his ultimate failure was to recognize that hardmen mature into wisemen. Old Men of the Mountain types, who regale their friends and cohorts with lessons and values of challenging and living amongst the mountains. No matter how far flung the challenge, a mountaineer's ultimate objective is to return from his/her adventure to share the experience; the cold, the hard breathing, the colors, the wind and their intimate feelings of wonder or survival. Regretfully, Guy's inner-self, his demons, contested his own outwardly generous, steadfast and friendly personality.
For me, Brown's story reacquainted me with several names and places familiar in mountaineering circles. It also cleard my long held confusion between John Waterman the highly acclaimed, albeit daring alpinist, Guy's son and Jonathan Waterman the prolific author of Alaskan mountaineering.
HOWEVER, as an end note the publisher editorial and Author INCORRECTLY stated that Krakauer wrote about John Waterman. The book Into the Wild was the story of Chris McCandless, by J.Krakauer.
A beautiful glimmer of a man's interesting life.......2004-02-13
After just finishing the book I found myself wanting to write the author and thank him for letting the reader into another world, a very personal one, of a man who had experienced so much in the ways of life, love, and death. The book flows with it's constant references to Guy Waterman's own writings as well as great literary works. I felt a part of the waterman clan ,without intruding, after reading the book. It has been a long time since a book made anything so real with out being too heavy handed. The adventures are amazing, both in the outdoors and with the human emotions. A fantastically orchestrated work; Chip Brown has proved himself as an outdoorsman and writer.
Total disappointment.......2004-02-03
I can only hope that Guy Waterman's final freezing hours atop Mt. Lafayette were less painful than trying to get through this book.
If there's a good story in here somewhere, it will take a search and rescue party to find it among Mr. Brown's endless rambling and superflous language. Here's an example, lifted randomly from the third chapter: "Although the Farm was only eight miles from downtown New Haven, where Professor Waterman taught physics at Yale, it seemed a world apart, a kind of Connecticut Shangri-la exempt from the privations of the Great Depression and far from the portents of the Second World War, and impossible, really, to separate from the enchantment of childhood itself, part place, part time, part the memory of that theater of spirits where Mother is forever calling you home from the woods with a silver whistle and Father is ushering you to bed with a lullaby on the grand piano."
Despite his impressive credentials, Brown writes like a novice who is more concerned with constructing elaborate sentences and displaying vocabulary than capturing the reader's interest and telling the subject's story. Shame on this book's editor for not hacking it to shreds.
Book Description
Between the covers of this book are testimonies from Christian role models from the worlds of film, sports, and music. The stories are real and powerful, and are presented in a way that believers and seekers alike will find compelling.
Customer Reviews:
Review: How Do You Know He's Real?.......2007-06-14
In the book, How Do You Know He's Real, you'll get an inside look into the spiritual lives of 34 celebrities. Hagberg has compiled testimonies ranging from Kirk Cameron to Rudy Sarzo (former bass player for Ozzy Osbourne). Each story is remarkably different and it's amazing to read how God has worked in the lives of each of these well-known people.
Celebrities Share Their Christian Faith.......2007-05-31
The author has collected very readable stories telling how celebrities have become Christians, and they share their low points and their joys here. This is a welcome peek into the lives of well known people who typically are more secretive.
Ricky Skaggs, Kirk Cameron, Gloria Gaynor, Bethel Johnson (34 people in all) tell about their struggles and their early days as new Christians.
Billy Ray Cyrus tells of singing in his grandpa's Pentecostal church when he was 4, and includes the touching lyrics to the song he wrote "The other side."
Jackie (Jacklyn) Zeman, star of General Hospital, advises that when you are at a crossroads "cry out to God and ask for His guidance."
Al Kasha's story resonated with me; this Academy Award winning songwriter overcame agoraphobia, and talks about how Hollywood is a tough place for a Jew who came to Christ, and how he started a Hollywood Bible study group.
There are stories here for anyone to enjoy and find spirit lifting.
Celebrities talk about God in their life.......2007-04-27
(Hagberg has written a companion book with the same title, subtitled God Unplugged)
How Do You Know He's Real? is a collection of celebrity essays about God acting in their lives. The contributors include athletes, musicians, and actors. Their stories often follow a familiar pattern of fame leading to drugs and alcohol before hitting bottom and being turned around by an encounter with God. That's not to say the accounts are all stock and cliched, but rather that God meets each person in their need--and for celebrities that need will be similar. And many of the tales include growing up in stable Christian homes, but still needing to make personal decisions about God and Christ and how that decision impacted their careers.
The stories are collected alphabetically but Hagberg has provided a topic finder so a reader battling discouragement or frustration can find offerings from Billy Ray Cyrus, Nancy Stafford, Zorro, Gary Burghoff or John Schneider.
Each essay begins with a picture and short biography of the contributor, listing their accomplishments. Following the selection is God's Road Map, a few sentences about the issues raised by the author, with Bible verses for teaching and encouragement.
The essays themselves are as varied as the contributors. Some of them read as if they were written to be given as speeches. Several sound like the writer could be sitting at your kitchen table, chatting over the coffee pot. All of them are honest and share from their heart how God has acted in their life and how they know He's real.
Reading the accounts of God acting in both miraculous and mundane ways reminds us that no matter what a person does for a living, each of us are created beings who need a loving Savior and merciful God.
Armchair Interviews says: Up close and personal stories from celebrities.
COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!!! Terrific Read!.......2006-05-18
I received this book as a gift and once I started, I couldn't put it down. Ms Hagberg has captured the beliefs of these well known and respected celebrities, sports figures, and musicians. I'm anxiously awaiting the next book in the series and can't wait to give copies of this one to all my friends. Order 2!
The book of a lifetime!.......2006-04-18
This is a book that you will no doubt want to share with everyone you know! (I certainly am!) It was so hard to put the book down - but worth it - just to extend the time and joy of reading it! GREAT content! GREAT author! I can't wait to read the next books in the series!
Book Description
What matters? Does life have meaning? Is life sacred? Is it bad to die? And can God and religion help? 10 Good Questions about Life and Death makes us think again about some of the most important issues we ever have to face.Drawing on examples from literature and film, as well as fictitious case studies, the author pulls these questions apart, considers how famous philosophers have approached them, and then offers solutions for further consideration. He avoids technicalities and jargon, ensuring that the book is accessible to readers with no prior knowledge of philosophy.
Books:
- The Purpose and Power of Praise & Worship
- The Science of Success: How to Attract Prosperity and Create Harmonic Wealth Through Proven Principles
- The Science of Success: How to Attract Prosperity and Create Harmonic Wealth Through Proven Principles
- The Secret
- The Secret Life of Bees
- The Secret
- The Seven Pillars of Health
- The Urantia Book: Indexed Version With Free Audio Book on DVD
- The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change
- There is a Season (Cheney & Shiloh: The Inheritance #3)
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