Amazon.com: Love & Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow (Complete Works of Forrest Church): Forrest Church: Books

From Booklist
As pastor of New York’s All Souls Unitarian Church, Church is perhaps most comfortable speaking in sermons, which may also be especially comforting, now that he has received a veritable death sentence via terminal cancer, to his congregants and the readers of his many books. The famously liberal minister-son of Idaho’s storied mid-twentieth-century liberal senator Frank Church here uses several sermons delivered during the span of his career to explore the bond humans have with death in relation to love, a topic he has addressed often when congregants or their loved ones have died. He concludes that to live is to love, that without love there can be no life. Thus the terms life and love become interchangeable, and life-love is a risk we all must take. Church speaks directly to the heart with a message of certain solace to virtually anyone facing the loss of a loved one. --Donna Chavez

Review

“Forrest Church is one of our great prophetic intellectuals and compassionate voices.”
—Cornel West, author of Race Matters

“Forrest Church is a minister to us all with this moving book on the lessons of life and death.”
—Tom Brokaw

“Truly a gift, one that will echo in my own preaching and teaching, and in my own life as well. Like Moses gazing at the Promised Land he would not enter, Forrest Church blesses us with his eloquence, his faith, and, mostly, his love.”
—Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Hardcover: 145 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press; 1 edition (September 17, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807072931
ISBN-13: 978-0807072936
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#6 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Unitarian Universalism

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mother Teresa, All Souls, San Diego, Princess Diana, Elton John, Silky Sullivan, Kentucky Derby, September Song, New York, Chris Antley, Twenty-third Psalm, Frank Church, Love You Forever, Southern California

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	94% buy the item featured on this page: Love & Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow (Complete Works of Forrest Church) 4.9 out of 5 stars (10) $14.30
	3% buy A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism 4.4 out of 5 stars (23) $11.52
	2% buy So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State 4.7 out of 5 stars (10) $12.00
	1% buy My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey 4.3 out of 5 stars (251) $10.20

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

unitarian universalism(6)

forrest church(5)

cancer(3)

life lessons(3)

bereavement(2)

death(2)

living life(2)

theology(2)

progressive christianity(1)

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Meaning of Life (and Death), July 20, 2008

By	Laura Pedersen (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

If you are a person who reads the obituaries then this book is for you! And not because you have a morbid fascination with death, but most likely as a result of your interest in life. How long did they live? What did they accomplish? How did it end? Was it too soon?

This book is about living, or as Rev. Church says, "To live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for."

Having Church as a spiritual guide is not unlike going on field trip with Mark Twain, with observations such as "A proportional relationship exists between the fear of death and the fear of life" seamlessly sharing space with his great-grandfather's three major food groups (tobacco, baked beans and whiskey). When people tell him proudly that they don't believe in God, he likes to ask them to tell him a little about the God they don't believe in, for he probably doesn't believe in him either. Church has a deft touch whether he's talking about Princess Diana, civilization versus anarchy, sad movies, or Plato.

Longtime leading light in the world of Unitarian Universalism, Rev. Church has picked up his pen to tackle many subjects including the Founding Fathers, the Jefferson Bible, freedom from fear, and liberalism versus fundamentalism, but this journey of the mind, body and soul proves his best and most provocative. Though Church of course says it better: "Life is filled with danger. That's just the way it is. Finally, the Titanic always hits the iceberg. Hence this simple, if imprudent, bit of advice: Before it does, pick up the phone. Pick up the gauntlet. Do whatever it takes. Take a few chances. Dare to live before you die."

And I might add, Dare to read this book!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone who is alive and knows they are going to die, July 20, 2008

By	Thomas Reece (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Forrest Church's poignant observations on Love and Death have long been important to my understanding of what life, love, and death are all about. This book provides very meaningful clarity on the subject of love and death possibly because he wrote it within weeks after having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It is a must read for people who are interested in living a life worth dying for as Forrest has long encouraged.
Tom Reece

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love After Death, August 23, 2008

By	S. Gross "Mother Gross" (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a MUST READ for anyone fearing their own death (and who doesn't?) or dealing with the death of a loved one. Written by a Unitarian Universalist minister dealing with his own impending demise, Forrest Church (son of the late Senator Frank Church of Utah) encourages us to appreciate the fact that we are very blessed to be alive at all, given the amazing series of events leading to our births.

Rev. Church acknowledges that, while he doesn't know what - if anything - awaits us after the death of our bodies, he is grateful to be able to simply wonder about it. His writings are drawn from his previous books and many sermons addressing this subject, along with the introspective thoughts arising from his recent diagnosis of terminal cancer. Most importantly, he reminds us that the love that we give and receive in this life is immortal.

He urges us to subscribe the following mantra:

Want what you have
Do what you can
Be who you are

Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 10 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Touching and Profound
When I ordered this book I wasn't aware that the author was a Universalist minister, which means he doesn't take the evangelical stand on the Bible being the final word, and... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Ostnsitiyas

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks for the great experience
Got the book, great condition, good reading; worth the money. I will purchase with them again.

Published 5 months ago by Toni A. Maraj

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. William H. Collins, Jr. Minister of Music
This book by Dr. Church was very inspiring and encouraging. We meet persons who express various views concerning death at different stages of their dying process. Read more

Published 6 months ago by William H. Collins Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
This is a wonderful book. What a shame to lose such a wonderful man. He truely lives the UU principles.

Published 7 months ago by Redhawk

5.0 out of 5 stars Share This Book with the People You Love
This book is more about love and life than it is about dying and death. I finished it in two days, and will begin to read it again, more slowly to absorb its wisdom. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Debra W. Haffner

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gift of a Lifetime
Part I of this short but immensely powerful and provocative book is an autobiographical review of the author's experiences with the death of others, (that each of us can readily... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Dee Monroe

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sage of Manhattan
I'm not interested in books about religion but this is a work of great philosophy, successfully tackling the age old questions of Why are we here? What do we do? Read more

Published 11 months ago by William Pietersen

› See all 10 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; }

Customer Discussions

Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (0 discussions)

	Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
	No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

[Cancel]

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
christianity Why the Gospels are unreliable	3488	8 seconds ago
christianity How Protestants can be helped to come home to Orthodox Church	275	1 minute ago
health Is Spanking a lovable or harmful form of disipline?	3548	9 minutes ago
religion What are Atheists doing in a Religion Community?	810	10 minutes ago
religion Hey, Theists, why do you find the notion(s) of "evidence" and of "proof" so troubling?	1267	13 minutes ago
biography The worst biography you've ever read	20	15 minutes ago
health Are Gays and Lesbians a future endangered species?	312	36 minutes ago