22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We've all been wrong about death... and life!, February 7, 2007
This review is from: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Paperback)
I own an entire book case filled with works of Orthodox theology and devotional works, but if I had to keep only four or five of them, I would include this little volume among them. Fr. Schmemann is well-known to Orthodox Christians for his eloquent and inspiring writing on a wide range of topics, but this book is open and accessible to any Christian.
The title may be misleading to some, as this is definitely NOT intended to be a "feel-good" or consoling book for people facing death (as do we all) or serious illness (having had HIV for over 21 years, I have been exposed to a plethora of such dubious comfort). Rather, it is to be understood in the context of Christian Faith and more specifically, the Paschal message of resurrection.
Fr. Schmemann explodes the commonly-accepted but erroneous view that Christianity preaches the "immortality of the soul" in the sense of a disembodied spirits who somehow "go to heaven," some mysterious ethereal place of which no one has any knowledge whatsoever. "Christ did not talk about the immortality of the soul," he says, "he preached about the resurrection of the dead!"* He traces our modern conception not to Christ, but to Plato, and his outlook is refreshing, positive, and inspiring.
"He's in a better place," we so often hear of those beloved family and friends who have died. And yet, what better place can there be than the world that God has created, ultimately to be restored from its fallen state to what he intended it to be? Fr. Schmemann uses the story of the raising of Lazarus (Gospel of St. John, Chapter 11) to illustrate this and debunk our commonly-held misconception. When Christ encounters the grieving Martha, she tells him "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." So what does he respond? That death is natural, and that Lazarus is in a "better place?" No, he weeps! And then he goes on to pull Lazarus back from that supposed "better place" to this terrible, earthly place. Fr. Schmemann helps to reveal to us the true and terrible nature of death, as well as the hope that Christ offers, "trampling down death by death," as Orthodox Christians proclaim at the Paschal services.
Death is not natural, nor part of God's plan. Death is not something "to come to terms with." There is no reconciling with death; death is rotten to the core. "Death is," as St. Paul says, "the last enemy to be destroyed."
"The Resurrection of Christ comprises, I repeat, the very heart of the Christian faith and Christian Good News. And yet, however strange it may sound, in the everyday life of Christianity and Christians in our time there is little room for this faith. It is as though obscured, and the contemporary Christian, without being cognizant of it, does not reject it, but somehow skirts about it, and does not live the faith as did the first Christians. If he attends church, he of course hears in the Christian service the ever resounding joyous confirmations: "trampling down death by death," "death is swallowed up by victory," "life reigns," and "not one dead remains in the grave." But ask him what he really thinks about death, and often (too often alas) you will hear some sort of rambling affirmation of the immortality of the soul and its life in some sort of world beyond the grave, a belief that existed even before Christianity. And that would be in the best of circumstances. In the worst, one would be met simply by perplexity and ignorance, "You know, I have never really thought about it." [But] "it is absolutely necessary to think about it, because it is with faith or unbelief, not simply in the "immortality of the soul," but precisely in the Resurrection of Christ and in our "universal resurrection" at the end of time that all of Christianity "stands or falls," as they say. If Christ did not rise, then the Gospel is the most horrible fraud of all. But if Christ did rise, then not only do all our pre-Christian representations and beliefs in the "immortality of the soul" change radically, but they simply fall away. And then the entire question of death presents itself in a totally different light. And here is the crux of the matter, that the Resurrection above all assumes an attitude toward death and an concept of death that is most profoundly different from its usual religious representations; and in a certain sense this concept is the opposite of those representations." --Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very thought provoking but not entirely satisfying, January 16, 2010
This review is from: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Paperback)
I found this short book n death, which is a transcript of radio talks given by the late Fr Schmemann to be very thought provoking and striking - his imagery of the "cosmic cemetery" being a case in point. Schmemann reminded me of CS Lewis.
He is excellent in showing the absolute horror of death ("The last enemy to be destroyed is death" 1 Cor 15:26), something to which we should not at all get accustomed or reconciled because its normality is abnormal to use Schmemann's language. After all, as Schmemann notes, Jesus weeps at the death of Lazarus. "To live in a cosmic cemetery and to "dispose" every day of thousands of corpses and to get excited about a "just" society and to be happy! - this is the fall of man."
Schmemann shows a contrast between the platonic idea of the soul escaping the body on death and entering into the life of rest with the materialist for whom this life is everything. He shows that both positions are wrong - the first is wrong because it fails to appreciate the beauty of creation in which man was designed to find his fulfilment in God; the second provides us with no hope whatsoever. The Christian faith is built on the annihilation of death in Christ's victorious resurrection. I found Schmemann's discussion of the fall to be particularly illuminating, his understanding that in choosing to eat of the forbidden fruit, man turned towards that which was transitory (Man subjected himself to food - he wanted life not from God but for and through himself) and turned towards the world for himself and in itself rather than seeing the world as the means by which man communes with God.
He is also excellent on precisely what is the meaning of resurrection reminding us that all the cells in the body are replaced every seven years (there is nothing specifically personal about atoms, he notes) - so the meaning of our bodies resurrecting should be understood in terms of us having spiritual bodies through which we will again enter into communion with God and each other for it is only through bodies that we can enter into communion, as human beings.
Schmemann also dispels the notion that Christianity is a "comfort" religion, rightly pointing out that a religion whose founder is crucified and who calls his disciples (i.e. us) to fall in his footsteps and take up our own crosses is hardly a comforting religion in the sense that it is not designed to take away suffering but rather that through suffering we can become like our Divine Master.
Criticisms
I found his message to be not entirely satisfying. How precisely am I to feel about death as I can feel the disintegration of death working in me. I agree it's abnormal and should never be but how concretely should I relate to it? I think the difficulty with the book lies in the Orthodox understanding of what happens after death. As I understand it, the Orthodox believe that our souls enter into a dormition or sleep. But how can the obvious fear and non-acceptance of death be trumped by a hoped for suspended animation - even if it is only until the end of time! And how does this square with St Paul exclaiming: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21) (One of my all time favourite St Paul statements) quoted at page 85 of the book. In a curious way the Orthodox approach seems to make the platonic view of things more attractive than the Christian one. Further would St Paul who communed with the Lord and was taken into the highest heavens in one of his mystical experience prefer death (leading to mere suspended dormition)to life. As a Catholic I cannot square this. Catholic belief is that on death our souls separate from the bodies, we are judged individually and we enter into beatitude or into hell. If in heaven, we see God face to face but there is still something lacking, our completeness awaits the resurrection of the dead. With such a belief, I can accept that death is the means through which I see the face of my Divine Master and that gives me a fair degree of excitement - what is suffering compared to that? But how would feel if I were an Orthodox - I have no idea!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Downer, January 9, 2007
This review is from: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Paperback)
I got this for a friend who was searching for the title a long time. We both read it, expecting to find comfort. It turned out to be extremely erudite in style and content, and a little too legalistic for our taste. Back to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross for us when consolation is needed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
